CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 


EARNS 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Gl  FT    OF 

V  A^r^-^"(ry>    ^X^cV>v^vvx::-s 

M  S  " 
Class 


CAMBRIDGE  SKETCHES 


CHARLES   Sl'MNKR 


CAMBRIDGE 
SKETCHES 


BY 

FRANK  PRESTON  STEARNS 

AUTHOR    OF    "TRUE    REPUBLICANISM,"     "LIFE    OF    PRINCE    OTTO 

VON    BISMARCK,"     "SKETCHES    FROM    CONCORD 

AND    APPLEDORE,"     ETC. 


ERsrn 


PHILADELPHIA     &f    LONDON 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    COMPANY 

1905 


COPYRIGHT,  1905 

BY 

J.   B.   LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


Published  April,  1905 


WITH  THK 

COMPLIMENTS  OF  THE  AUTHOR 


Printed  by 
J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 


IT  has  never  been  my  practice  to  introduce 
myself  to  distinguished  persons,  or  to  attempt 
in  any  way  to  attract  their  attention,  and  I  now 
regret  that  I  did  not  embrace  some  opportuni 
ties  which  occurred  to  me  in  early  life  for  doing 
so;  but  at  the  time  I  knew  the  men  whom  I 
have  described  in  the  present  volume  I  had  no 
expectation  that  I  should  ever  write  about  them. 
My  acquaintance  with  them,  however,  has 
served  to  give  me  a  more  elevated  idea  of 
human  nature  than  I  otherwise  might  have 
acquired  in  the  ordinary  course  of  mundane 
affairs,  and  it  is  with  the  hope  of  transmitting 
this  impression  to  my  readers  that  I  publish 
the  present  account.  Some  of  them  have  a 
world-wide  celebrity,  and  others  who  were 
distinguished  in  their  own  time  seem  likely 
now  to  be  forgotten;  but  they  all  deserve  well 
of  the  republic  of  humanity  and  of  the  age  in 
which  they  lived. 

THE  EVERGREENS,  JANUARY  4,  1905. 


CONTENTS 

¥ 

PAGE 

THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  WAR 13 

FRANCIS  J.  CHILD 40 

LONGFELLOW 55 

LOWELL  83 

C.  P.  CRANCH 113 

T.  G.  APPLETON 132 

DOCTOR  HOLMES 142 

FRANK  BIRD  AND  THE  BIRD  CLUB 162 

SUMNER 180 

CHEVALIER  HOWE  218 

THE  WAR  GOVERNOR 242 

THE  COLORED  REGIMENTS 262 

EMERSON'S  TRIBUTE  TO  GEORGE  L.  STEARNS 279 

ELIZUR  WRIGHT 286 

DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON 309 

LEAVES  FROM  A  ROMAN  DIARY 332 

CENTENNIAL  CONTRIBUTIONS  .                                         .  355 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

¥ 

PAGE 

Charles  Sumner Frontispiece 

Francis  J.  Child 48 

C.  P.  Cranch  113 

F.  W.  Bird 162 

John  A.  Andrew 242 

Major  George  L.  Stearns 262 

Elizur  Wright 286 


11 


CAMBRIDGE   SKETCHES 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE   WAR 

Never  before  hast  thou  shone 
So  beautifully  upon  the  Thebans; 
0,  eye  of  golden  day: 

—  Antigone  of  Sophocles. 

ONE  bright  morning  in  April,  1865,  Haw 
thorne's  son  and  the  writer  were  coming  forth 
together  from  the  further  door-way  of  Stough- 
ton  Hall  at  Harvard  College,  when,  as  the  last 
reverberations  of  the  prayer-bell  were  sound 
ing,  a  classmate  called  to  us  across  the  yard: 
"General  Lee  has  surrendered  !'  '  There  was 
a  busy  hum  of  voices  where  the  three  converging 
lines  of  students  met  in  front  of  Appleton 
Chapel,  and  when  we  entered  the  building  there 
was  President  Hill  seated  in  the  recess  between 
the  two  pulpits,  and  old  Doctor  Peabody  at  his 
desk,  with  his  face  beaming  like  that  of  a  saint 
in  an  old  religious  painting.  His  prayer  was 
exceptionally  fervid  and  serious.  He  asked  a 
blessing  on  the  American  people;  on  all  those 
who  had  suffered  from  the  war  ;  on  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  ;  and  on  our  defeated 

13 


14  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

enemies.  When  the  short  service  had  ended, 
Doctor  Hill  came  forward  and  said :  "  It  is  not 
fitting  that  any  college  tasks  or  exercises  should 
take  place  until  another  sun  has  arisen  after 
this  glorious  morning.  Let  us  all  celebrate  this 
fortunate  event." 

On  leaving  the  chapel  we  found  that  Flavius 
Josephus  Cook,  afterwards  Eev.  Joseph  Cook 
of  the  Monday  Lectureship,  had  collected  the 
members  of  the  Christian  Brethren  about  him, 
and  they  were  all  singing  a  hymn  of  thanks 
giving  in  a  very  vigorous  manner. 

There  were  some,  however,  who  recollected 
on  their  way  to  breakfast  the  sad  procession 
that  had  passed  through  the  college-yard  six 
months  before, — the  military  funeral  of  James 
Eussell  Lowell's  nephews,  killed  in  General 
Sheridan's  victory  at  Cedar  Eun.  There  were 
no  recent  graduates  of  Harvard  more  univer 
sally  beloved  than  Charles  and  James  Lowell; 
and  none  of  whom  better  things  were  expected. 
To  Lowell  himself,  who  had  no  other  children, 
except  a  daughter,  they  were  almost  like  his 
own  sons,  and  the  ode  he  wrote  on  this  occasion 
touches  a  depth  of  pathos  not  to  be  met  with 
elsewhere  in  his  poetry.  There  was  not  at  that 
time  another  family  in  Cambridge  or  Boston 
which  contained  two  such  bright  intellects,  two 
such  fine  characters.  It  did  not  seem  right 
that  they  should  both  have  left  their  mother, 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  15 

who  was  bereaved  already  by  a  faithless  hus 
band,  to  fight  the  battles  of  their  country,  how 
ever  much  they  were  needed  for  this.  Even  in 
the  most  despotic  period  of  European  history 
the  only  son  of  a  widow  was  exempt  from  con 
scription.  Then  to  lose  them  both  in  a  single 
day!  Mrs.  Lowell  became  the  saint  of  Quincy 
Street,  and  none  were  so  hardened  or  self- 
absorbed  as  not  to  do  her  reverence. 

But  now  the  terrible  past  was  eclipsed  by  the 
joy  and  pride  of  victory.  The  great  heroic 
struggle  was  over;  young  men  could  look  for 
ward  to  the  practice  of  peaceable  professions, 
and  old  men  had  no  longer  to  think  of  the  ex 
hausting  drain  upon  their  resources.  Fond 
mothers  could  now  count  upon  the  survival  of 
their  sons,  and  young  wives  no  longer  feared  to 
become  widows  in  a  night.  Everywhere  there 
was  joy  and  exhilaration.  To  many  it  was  the 
happiest  day  they  had  ever  known. 

President  Hill  was  seen  holding  a  long  and 
earnest  conversation  with  Agassiz  on  the  path 
towards  his  house.  The  professors  threw  aside 
their  contemplated  work.  Every  man  went  to 
drink  a  glass  of  wine  with  his  best  friend,  and 
to  discuss  the  fortunes  of  the  republic.  The 
ball-players  set  off  for  the  Delta,  where  Me 
morial  Hall  now  stands,  to  organize  a  full 
match  game;  the  billiard  experts  started  a 
tournament  on  Mr.  Lyon's  new  tables;  and 


16  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  rowing  men  set  off  for  a  three-hours'  pull 
down  Boston  harbor.  Others  collected  in 
groups  and  discussed  the  future  of  their  coun 
try  with  the  natural  precocity  of  youthful 
minds.  "Here,"  said  a  Boston  cousin  of  the 
two  young  Lowells,  to  a  pink-faced,  sandy- 
haired  ball-player,  "you  are  opposed  to  capital 
punishment ;  do  you  think  Jeff.  Davis  ought  to 
be  hung?"  "Just  at  present,"  replied  the 
latter,  ' '  I  am  more  in  favor  of  suspending  Jeff. 
Davis  than  of  suspending  the  law," — an  opinion 
that  was  greeted  with  laughter  and  applause. 
The  general  sentiment  of  the  crowd  was  in  favor 
of  permitting  General  Lee  to  retire  in  peace  to 
private  life;  but  in  regard  to  the  president  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy  the  feeling  was  more 
vindictive. 

We  can  now  consider  it  fortunate  that  no  such 
retaliatory  measures  were  taken  by  the  govern 
ment.  Much  better  that  Jefferson  Davis,  and 
his  confederates  in  the  secession  movement, 
should  have  lived  to  witness  every  day  the  con 
sequences  of  that  gigantic  blunder.  The  fact 
that  they  adopted  a  name  for  their  newly- 
organized  nation  which  did  not  differ  essen 
tially  from  the  one  which  they  had  discarded; 
that  their  form  of  government,  with  its  consti 
tution  and  laws,  differed  so  slightly  from  those 
of  the  United  States,  is  sufficient  to  indicate 
that  their  separation  was  not  to  be  permanent, 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  17 

and  that  it  only  required  the  abolition  of  slavery 
to  bring  the  Southern  States  back  to  their  for 
mer  position  in  the  Union.  If  men  and  nations 
did  what  was  for  their  true  interests,  this  would 
be  a  different  world. 

At  that  time  the  college  proper  consisted  of 
three  recitation  buildings,  and  four  or  five  dor 
mitories,  besides  Appleton  Chapel,  and  little 
old  Holden  Chapel  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
which  still  remains  the  best  architecture  on  the 
grounds.  The  buildings  were  mostly  old,  plain, 
and  homely,  and  the  rooms  of  the  students 
simply  furnished.  In  every  class  there  were 
twelve  or  fifteen  dandies,  who  dressed  in  some 
what  above  the  height  of  the  fashion,  but  they 
served  to  make  the  place  more  picturesque  and 
were  not  so  likely  to  be  mischievous  as  some 
of  the  rougher  country  boys.  It  was  a  time  of 
plain,  sensible  living.  To  hire  a  man  to  make 
fires  in  winter,  and  black  the  boots,  was  con 
sidered  a  great  luxury.  A  majority  of  the  stu 
dents  blacked  their  own  boots,  although  they 
found  this  very  disagreeable.  The  college 
pump  was  a  venerable  institution,  a  leveller  of 
all  distinctions ;  and  many  a  pleasant  conver 
sation  took  place  about  its  wooden  trough.  No 
student  thought  of  owning  an  equipage,  and  a 
Eussell  or  a  Longworth  would  as  soon  have 
hired  a  sedan  chair  as  a  horse  and  buggy,  when 

2 


18  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

he  might  have  gone  on  foot.  Good  pedestrian- 
ism  was  the  pride  of  the  Harvard  student ;  and 
an  honest,  wholesome  pride  it  was.  There  was 
also  some  good  running.  Both  Julian  Haw 
thorne  and  Thomas  W.  Ward  ran  to  Concord, 
a  distance  of  sixteen  miles,  without  stopping,  I 
believe,  by  the  way.  William  Blaikie,  the  stroke 
of  the  University  crew,  walked  to  New  York 
during  the  Thanksgiving  recess — six  days  in  all. 

The  undergraduates  had  not  yet  become  ac 
quainted  with  tennis,  the  most  delightful  of 
light  exercises,  and  foot-ball  had  not  yet  been 
regulated  according  to  the  rules  of  Kugby  and 
Harrow.  The  last  of  the  pernicious  foot-ball 
fights  between  Sophomores  and  Freshmen  took 
place  in  September,  1863,  and  commenced  in 
quite  a  sanguinary  manner.  A  Sophomore 
named  Wright  knocked  over  Ellis,  the  captain 
of  the  Freshman  side,  without  reason  or  provo 
cation,  and  was  himself  immediately  laid  pros 
trate  by  a  red-headed  Scotch  boy  named  Rod 
erick  Dhu  Coe,  who  seemed  to  have  come  to 
college  for  the  purpose,  for  he  soon  afterwards 
disappeared  and  was  never  seen  there  again. 
With  the  help  of  Coe  and  a  few  similar  spirits, 
the  Freshmen  won  the  game.  It  was  the  first 
of  President  Hill's  reforms  to  abolish  this 
brutal  and  unseemly  custom. 

The  New  York  game  of  base-ball,  which  has 
since  assumed  such  mammoth  proportions,  was 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  19 

first  introduced  in  our  colleges  by  Wright  and 
Flagg,  of  the  Class  of  '66 ;  and  the  first  game, 
which  the  Cambridge  ladies  attended,  was 
played  on  the  Delta  in  May  of  that  year  with 
the  Trimountain  Club  of  Boston.  Flagg  was 
the  finest  catcher  in  New  England  at  that  time ; 
and,  although  he  was  never  chosen  captain,  he 
was  the  most  skilful  manager  of  the  game.  It 
was  he  who  invented  the  double-play  which  can 
sometimes  be  accomplished  by  muffing  a  fly- 
catch  between  the  bases.  He  caught  without 
mask  or  gloves  and  was  several  times  wounded 
by  the  ball. 

Let  us  retrace  the  steps  of  time  and  take  a 
look  at  the  old  Delta  on  a  bright  June  evening, 
when  the  shadows  of  the  elms  are  lengthening 
across  the  grass.  There  are  from  fifty  to  a 
hundred  students,  and  perhaps  three  or  four 
professors,  watching  the  Harvard  nine  practise 
in  preparation  for  its  match  with  the  formidable 
Lowell  nine  of  Boston.  Who  is  that  slender 
youth  at  second  base, — with  the  long  nose  and 
good-humored  twinkle  in  his  eye, — who  never 
allows  a  ball  to  pass  by  him?  Will  he  ever 
become  the  Dean  of  the  Harvard  Law  School? 
And  that  tall,  olive-complexioned  fellow  in  the 
outfield,  six  feet  two  in  his  ball-shoes, — who 
would  suppose  that  he  is  destined  to  go  to  Con 
gress  and  serve  his  country  as  Minister  to 
Spain !  There  is  another  dark-eyed  youth  lean- 


20  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

ing  against  the  fence  and  watching  the  ball  as  it 
passes  to  and  fro.  Is  he  destined  to  become 
Governor  of  Massachusetts?  And  that  sturdy- 
looking  first-baseman, — will  he  enter  the  min 
istry  and  preach  sermons  in  Appleton  Chapel? 
These  young  men  all  live  quiet,  sensible  lives, 
and  trouble  themselves  little  concerning  class 
honors  and  secret  societies.  If  they  have  a 
characteristic  in  common  it  is  that  they  always 
keep  their  mental  balance  and  never  go  to  ex 
tremes;  but  neither  they  nor  others  have  any 
suspicion  of  their  several  destinies.  Could  they 
return  and  fill  their  former  places  on  the 
ground,  how  strangely  they  would  feel!  But 
the  ground  itself  is  gone ;  their  youth  is  gone, 
and  the  honors  that  have  come  to  them  seem 
less  important  than  the  welfare  of  their  families 
and  kindred. 

Misdemeanors,  great  and  small,  on  the  part 
of  the  students  were  more  common  formerly 
than  they  have  been  in  recent  years,  for  the 
good  reason  that  the  chances  of  detection  were 
very  much  less.  Some  of  the  practical  jokes 
were  of  a  much  too  serious  character.  The 
college  Bible  was  abstracted  from  the  Chapel 
and  sent  to  Yale;  the  communion  wine  was 
stolen ;  a  paper  bombshell  was  exploded  behind 
a  curtain  in  the  Greek  recitation-room;  and 
Professor  Pierce  discovered  one  morning  that 
all  his  black-boards  had  been  painted  white. 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  21 

All  the  copies  of  Cooke  's  Chemical  Physics  sud 
denly  disappeared  one  afternoon,  and  next 
morning  the  best  scholars  in  the  Junior  Class 
were  obliged  to  say,  "Not  prepared. " 

A  society  called  the  Med.  Fac.  was  chiefly  re 
sponsible  for  these  performances ;  but  so  secret 
was  it  in  its  membership  and  proceedings  that 
neither  the  college  faculty  nor  the  great  major 
ity  of  the  students  really  knew  whether  there 
was  such  a  society  in  existence  or  not.  A  judge 
of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  who  had 
belonged  to  it  in  his  time,  was  not  aware  that 
his  own  son  was  a  member  of  it. 

Some  of  the  members  of  this  society  turned 
out  well,  and  others  badly;  but  generally  an 
inclination  for  such  high  pranks  shows  a  levity 
of  nature  that  bodes  ill  for  the  future.  A 
college  class  is  a  wonderful  study  in  human 
nature,  from  the  time  it  enters  until  its  mem 
bers  have  arrived  at  forty  or  fifty  years  of  age. 
There  was  one  young  man  at  Harvard  in  those 
days  who  was  so  evidently  marked  out  by  des 
tiny  for  a  great  public  career  that  when  he  was 
elected  to  Congress  in  1876  his  classmates  were 
only  surprised  because  it  seemed  so  natural 
that  this  should  happen.  Another  was  of  so 
depraved  a  character  that  it  seemed  as  if  he  was 
intended  to  illustrate  the  bad  boy  in  a  Sunday- 
school  book.  '  He  was  so  untrustworthy  that 
very  soon  no  one  was  willing  to  associate  with 


22  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

him.  He  stole  from  his  father,  and,  after  grad 
uating,  went  to  prison  for  forgery  and  finally 
was  killed  by  a  tornado.  There  was  still 
another,  a  great  fat  fellow,  who  always  seemed 
to  be  half  asleep,  and  was  very  shortly  run 
over  and  killed  by  a  locomotive.  Yet  if  we  could 
know  the  whole  truth  in  regard  to  these  persons 
it  might  be  difficult  to  decide  how  much  of  their 
good  and  evil  fortune  was  owing  to  themselves 
and  how  much  to  hereditary  tendencies  and 
early  influences.  The  sad  fact  remains  that  it 
is  much  easier  to  spoil  a  bright  boy  than  to 
educate  a  dull  one. 

The  undergraduates  were  too  much  absorbed 
in  their  own  small  affairs  to  pay  much  attention 
to  politics,  even  in  those  exciting  times.  For 
the  most  part  there  was  no  discrimination 
against  either  the  Trojans  or  Tyrians ;  but  abo 
litionists  were  not  quite  so  well  liked  as  others, 
especially  after  the  close  of  the  war ;  and  it  was 
noticed  that  the  sons  of  pro-slavery  families 
commonly  seemed  to  have  lacked  the  good  moral 
training  (and  the  respect  for  industry)  which 
is  youth's  surest  protection  against  the  pitfalls 
of  life.  The  larger  proportion  of  suspended 
students  belonged  to  this  class. 

During  the  war  period  Cambridge  social  life 
was  regulated  by  a  coterie  of  ten  or  twelve 
young  ladies  who  had  grown  up  together  and 
who  were  generally  known  as  the  "  Spree, "• 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE   WAR  23 

not  because  they  were  given  to  romping,  for 
none  kept  more  strictly  within  the  bounds  of  a 
decorous  propriety,  but  because  they  were 
accustomed  to  go  off  together  in  the  summer  to 
the  White  Mountains  or  to  some  other  rustic 
resort,  where  they  were  supposed  to  have  a  per 
fectly  splendid  time;  and  this  they  probably 
did,  for  it  requires  cultivation  and  refinement 
of  feeling  to  appreciate  nature  as  well  as  art. 
They  decided  what  students  and  other  young 
ladies  should  be  invited  to  the  assemblies  in 
Lyceum  Hall,  and  they  arranged  their  own  pri 
vate  entertainments  over  the  heads  of  their 
fathers  and  mothers;  and  it  should  be  added 
that  they  exercised  their  authority  with  a  very 
good  grace.  They  had  their  friends  and  ad 
mirers  among  the  collegians,  but  no  young  man 
of  good  manners  and  pleasing  address,  and 
above  all  who  was  a  good  dancer,  needed  to  beg 
for  an  invitation.  The  good  dancers,  however, 
were  in  a  decided  minority,  and  many  who  con 
sidered  themselves  so  in  their  own  habitats 
found  themselves  much  below  the  standard  in 
Cambridge. 

Mrs.  James  Russell  Lowell  was  one  of  the 
lady  patronesses  of  the  assemblies,  and  her  hus 
band  sometimes  came  to  them  for  an  hour  or  so 
before  escorting  her  home.  He  watched  the 
performance  with  a  poet's  eye  for  whatever  is 
graceful  and  charming,  but  sometimes  also 


24  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

with  a  humorous  smile  playing  upon  his  face. 
There  were  some  very  good  dancers  among 
the  ladies  who  skimmed  the  floor  almost  like 
swallows;  but  the  finest  waltzer  in  Cam 
bridge  or  Boston  was  Theodore  Colburn, 
who  had  graduated  ten  years  previously,  and 
with  the  advantage  of  a  youthful  figure,  had 
kept  up  the  pastime  ever  since.  The  present 
writer  has  never  seen  anywhere  another  man 
who  could  waltz  with  such  consummate  ease  and 
unconscious  grace.  Lowell's  eyes  followed  him 
continually;  but  it  is  also  said  that  Colburn 
would  willingly  dispense  with  the  talent  for 
better  success  in  his  profession.  Next  to  him 
comes  the  tall  ball-player,  already  referred  to, 
and  it  is  delightful  to  see  the  skill  with  which 
he  adapts  his  unusual  height  to  the  most  petite 
damsel  on  the  floor.  Here  the  " Spree"  is 
omnipotent,  but  it  does  not  like  Class  Day,  for 
then  Boston  and  its  suburbs  pour  forth  their 
torrent  of  beauty  and  fashion,  and  Cambridge 
for  the  time  being  is  left  somewhat  in  the  shade. 
Henry  James  in  his  "International  Episode" 
speaks  as  if  New  York  dancers  were  the  best 
in  the  world,  and  they  are  certainly  more  light- 
footed  than  English  men  and  women;  but  a 
New  York  lady,  with  whom  Mr.  James  is  well 
acquainted,  says  that  Bostonians  and  Austrians 
are  the  finest  dancers.  The  true  Bostonian 
cultivates  a  sober  reserve  in  his  waltzing  which, 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  25 

if  not  too  serious,  adds  to  the  grace  of  his  move 
ment.  Yet,  when  the  german  is  over,  we  re 
member  the  warning  of  the  wealthy  Corinthian 
who  refused  his  daughter  to  the  son  of  Tisander 
on  the  ground  that  he  was  too  much  of  a  dancer 
and  acrobat. 

From  1840  to  1860  Harvard  University  prac 
tically  stagnated.  The  world  about  it  pro 
gressed,  but  the  college  remained  unchanged. 
Its  presidents  were  excellent  men,  but  they  had 
lived  too  long  under  the  academic  shade.  They 
lacked  practical  experience  in  the  great  world. 
There  were  few  lectures  in  the  college  course, 
and  the  recitations  were  a  mere  routine.  The 
text-books  on  philosophical  subjects  were  nar 
row  and  prejudiced.  Modern  languages  were 
sadly  neglected;  and  the  tradition  that  a 
French  instructor  once  entertained  his  class  by 
telling  them  his  dreams,  if  not  true,  was  at  least 
characteristic.  The  sons  of  wealthy  Bostonians 
were  accustomed  to  brag  that  they  had  gone 
through  college  without  doing  any  real  study 
ing.  To  the  college  faculty  politics  only  meant 
the  success  of  Webster  and  the  great  Whig 
party.  The  anti-slavery  agitation  was  consid 
ered  inconvenient  and  therefore  prejudicial. 
During  the  struggle  for  free  institutions  in 
Kansas,  the  president  of  Harvard  College 
undertook  to  debate  the  question  in  a  public 


26  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

meeting,  but  he  displayed  such  lamentable  igno 
rance  that  he  was  soon  obliged  to  retire  in 
confusion. 

The  war  for  the  Union,  however,  waked  up 
the  slumbering  university,  as  it  did  all  other 
institutions  and  persons.  Rev.  Thomas  Hill 
was  chosen  president  in  1861,  and  was  the  first 
anti-slavery  president  of  the  college  since 
Josiah  Quincy ;  and  this  of  itself  indicated  that 
he  was  in  accord  with  the  times, — had  not  set 
his  face  obstinately  against  them.  He  was  not 
so  practical  a  man  as  President  Quincy,  but  he 
was  one  of  the  best  scholars  in  America.  His 
administration  has  not  been  looked  upon  as  a 
success,  but  he  served  to  break  the  ice  and  to 
open  the  way  for  future  navigation.  He  ac 
cepted  the  position  with  definite  ideas  of  re 
form;  but  he  lacked  skill  in  the  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends.  He  was  determined  to  show  no 
favoritism  to  wealth  and  social  position,  and 
he  went  perhaps  too  far  in  the  opposite  direc 
tion.  One  day  when  the  workmen  were  digging 
the  cellar  of  Gray's  Hall,  President  Hill  threw 
off  his  coat,  seized  a  shovel,  and  used  it  vigor 
ously  for  half  an  hour  or  more.  This  was  in 
tended  as  an  example  to  teach  the  students  the 
dignity  of  labor;  but  they  did  not  understand 
it  so.  At  the  faculty  meetings  he  carried  infor 
mality  of  manner  to  an  excess.  He  depended 
too  much  on  personal  influence,  which,  as 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  27 

George  Washington  said  formerly,  "cannot 
become  government."  He  wrote  letters  to  the 
Sophomores  exhorting  them  not  to  haze  the 
Freshmen,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  Freshmen 
were  hazed  more  severely  than  ever.  Then  he 
suspended  the  Sophomores  in  a  wholesale  man 
ner,  many  of  them  for  slight  offences.  How 
ever,  he  stopped  the  foot-ball  fights,  and  made 
the  examinations  much  more  strict  than  they 
had  been  previously.  He  endeavored  to  incul 
cate  the  true  spirit  of  scholarship  among  the 
students, — not  to  study  for  rank  but  from  a 
genuine  love  of  the  subject.  The  opposition 
that  his  reforms  excited  made  him  unpopular, 
and  Freshmen  came  to  college  so  prejudiced 
against  him  that  all  his  kindness  and  good-will 
were  wasted  upon  them. 

"There  goes  the  greatest  man  in  this  coun 
try,"  said  a  fashionable  Boston  youth,  one  day 
in  the  spring  of  1866.  It  was  Louis  Agassiz 
returning  from  a  call  on  President  Hill.  Such 
a  statement  shows  that  the  speaker  belonged 
to  a  class  of  people  called  Tories,  in  1776,  and 
who  might  properly  be  called  so  still.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Agassiz  had  long  since  passed 
the  meridian  of  his  reputation,  and  his  sun  was 
now  not  far  from  setting.  He  had  returned 
from  his  expedition  to  South  America  with  a 
valuable  collection  of  fishes  and  other  scientific 
materials ;  but  his  theory  of  glaciers,  which  he 


28  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

went  there  to  substantiate,  had  not  been  proven. 
Darwin's  " Origin  of  Species "  had  already 
swept  his  nicely-constructed  plans  of  original 
types  into  the  fire  of  futile  speculation.  Yet 
Agassiz  was  a  great  man  in  his  way,  and  his 
importance  was  universally  recognized.  He 
had  given  a  vigorous  and  much-needed  impetus 
to  the  study  of  geology  in  America,  and  as  a 
compendium  of  all  the  different  branches  of 
natural  history  there  was  nobody  like  him.  In 
his  lifelong  single-minded  devotion  to  science 
he  had  few  equals  and  no  superiors.  He  cared 
not  for  money  except  so  far  as  it  helped  the 
advancement  of  his  studies.  For  many  years 
Madam  Agassiz  taught  a  select  school  for  young 
ladies  (to  which  Emerson,  among  others,  sent 
his  daughters),  in  order  to  provide  funds  for 
her  husband  to  carry  on  his  work.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachu 
setts  was  rather  stingy  to  him.  Edward  Ever 
ett  once  made  an  eloquent  address  in  his  behalf 
to  the  legislature,  but  it  had  no  effect.  Louis 
Napoleon's  munificent  offers  could  not  induce 
him  to  return  to  Paris,  for  he  believed  that 
more  important  work  was  to  be  done  in  the 
new  world, — which,  by  the  way,  he  considered 
the  oldest  portion  of  the  globe. 

In  height  and  figure  Agassiz  was  so  much  like 
Doctor  Hill  that  when  the  two  were  together 
this  was  very  noticeable.  They  were  both  broad- 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  29 

shouldered,  deep-chested  men,  and  of  about  the 
same  height,  with  large,  well-rounded  heads; 
but  Agassiz  had  an  elastic  French  step,  whereas 
Doctor  Hill  walked  with  something  of  a  shuffle. 
One  might  even  imagine  Agassiz  dancing  a 
waltz.  Lowell  said  of  him  that  he  was  "em 
phatically  a  man,  and  that  wherever  he  went  he 
made  a  friend. "  His  broad  forehead  seemed 
to  smile  upon  you  while  he  was  talking,  and 
from  his  simple-hearted  and  genial  manners 
you  felt  that  he  would  be  a  friend  whenever  you 
wanted  one.  He  was  the  busiest  and  at  the 
same  time  one  of  the  most  accessible  persons 
in  the  university. 

On  one  occasion,  happening  to  meet  a  number 
of  students  at  the  corner  of  University  Build 
ing,  one  of  them  was  bold  enough  to  say  to  him : 
"Prof.  Agassiz,  would  you  be  so  good  as  to 
explain  to  us  the  difference  between  the  stone 
of  this  building  and  that  of  Boylston  Hall? 
We  know  that  they  are  both  granite,  but  they 
do  not  look  alike."  Agassiz  was  delighted,  and 
entertained  them  with  a  brief  lecture  on 
primeval  rocks  and  the  crust  of  the  earth's 
surface.  He  told  them  that  Boylston  Hall  was 
made  of  syenite;  that  most  of  the  stone  called 
granite  in  New  England  was  syenite,  and  if 
they  wanted  to  see  genuine  granite  they  should 
go  to  the  tops  of  the  White  Mountains.  Then 
looking  at  his  watch  he  said:  "Ah,  I  see  I  am 


30  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

late!  Good  day,  my  friends;  and  I  hope  we 
shall  all  meet  again."  So  off  he  went,  leaving 
each  of  his  hearers  with  the  embryonic  germ 
of  a  scientific  interest  in  his  mind. 

Longfellow  tells  in  his  diary  how  Agassiz 
came  to  him  when  his  health  broke  down  and 
wept.  "I  cannot  work  any  longer,'7  he  said; 
and  when  he  could  not  work  he  was  miserable. 
The  trouble  that  afflicted  him  was  congestion 
of  the  base  of  the  brain,  a  disorder  that  is  not 
caused  so  frequently  by  overwork  as  by  mental 
emotion.  His  cure  by  Dr.  Edward  H.  Clarke, 
by  the  use  of  bromides  and  the  application  of 
ice,  was  considered  a  remarkable  one  at  the 
time ;  but  five  years  later  the  disorder  returned 
again  and  cost  him  his  life. 

He  believed  that  the  Laurentian  Mountains, 
north  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  was  the  first 
land  which  showed  itself  above  the  waste  of 
waters  with  which  the  earth  was  originally 
surmounted. 

Perhaps  the  most  picturesque  figure  on  the 
college  grounds  was  the  old  Greek  professor, 
Evangelinus  Apostolides  Sophocles;  a  genuine 
importation  from  Athens,  whom  the  more  im 
aginative  sort  of  people  liked  to  believe  was 
descended  from  the  Greek  poet  Sophocles  of 
the  Periclean  age.  He  was  much  too  honest 
himself  to  give  countenance  to  this  rumor,  and 
if  you  inquired  of  him  concerning  it,  he  would 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  31 

say  that  he  should  like  very  well  to  believe  it, 
and  it  was  not  impossible,  although  there  were 
no  surnames  in  ancient  Greece  before  the  time 
of  Constantine ;  he  had  not  found  any  evidence 
in  favor  of  it.  He  was  a  short,  thick-set  man 
with  a  large  head  and  white  Medusa-like  hair; 
but  such  an  eye  as  his  was  never  seen  in  an 
Anglo-Saxon  face.  It  reminded  you  at  once  of 
Byron's  Corsair,  and  suggested  contingencies 
such  as  find  no  place  in  quiet,  law-abiding  New 
England, — the  possibility  of  sudden  and  ter 
rible  concentration.  His  clothing  had  been 
long  since  out  of  fashion,  and  he  always  wore 
a  faded  cloth  cap,  such  as  no  student  would 
dare  to  put  on.  He  lived  like  a  hermit  in  No. 
3  Holworthy,  where  he  prepared  his  own  meals 
rather  than  encounter  strange  faces  at  a  board 
ing-house  table.  Once  he  invited  the  president 
of  the  college  to  supper;  and  the  president 
went,  not  without  some  misgivings  as  to  what 
his  entertainment  might  be.  He  found,  how 
ever,  a  simple  but  well-served  repast,  including 
a  French  roll  and  a  cup  of  black  coffee  with 
the  grounds  in  it.  The  coffee  loosened  Soph 
ocles 's  usually  reticent  tongue,  and  after  that, 
as  the  president  himself  expressed  it,  they  had 
a  delightful  conversation.  Everybody  respected 
Sophocles  in  spite  of  his  eccentric  mode  of  life, 
and  the  Freshmen  were  as  much  afraid  of  him 
as  if  he  had  been  the  Minotaur  of  Crete. 


32  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

The  reason  for  his  economy  did  not  become 
apparent  until  after  his  death.  When  he  first 
came  to  the  university  he  made  friends  with  a 
gentleman  in  Cambridge  to  whom  he  was  much 
attached,  but  who,  at  the  time  we  write  of,  had 
long  since  been  dead.  It  was  to  support  the 
daughters  of  his  friend,  who  would  have  other 
wise  been  obliged  to  earn  their  own  living,  that 
he  saved  his  money ;  and  in  his  will  he  left  them 
a  competency  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  or  more. 

On  one  occasion  a  Freshman  was  sent  to  him 
to  receive  a  private  admonition  for  writing  pro 
fane  language  on  a  settee;  but  the  Freshman 
denied  the  accusation.  Sophocles 's  eyes 
twinkled.  "Did  you  not,"  said  he,  "write  the 
letters  d-a-m-n?"  "No,"  said  the  boy,  laugh 
ing;  "it  must  have  been  somebody  else." 
Sophocles  laughed  and  said  he  would  report  the 
case  back  to  the  college  faculty.  A  few  days 
later  he  stopped  the  youth  in  the  college  yard 
and,  merely  saying  "I  have  had  your  private 
admonition  revoked,"  passed  on.  Professor 
Sophocles  was  right.  If  the  Freshman  had 
tried  to  deceive  him  he  would  not  have  laughed 
but  looked  grave. 

The  morning  in  April,  1861,  after  President 
Lincoln  had  issued  his  call  for  75,000  troops,  a 
Harvard  Senior  mentioned  it  to  Sophocles,  who 
said  to  him:  "What  can  the  government  accom 
plish  with  75,000  soldiers?  It  is  going  to  take 


THE    CLOSE    OF   THE    WAR  33 

half  a  million  of  men  to  suppress  this  rebel 
lion.'' 

He  was  a  good  instructor  in  his  way,  but  dry 
and  methodical.  Professor  Goodwin's  recita 
tions  were  much  more  interesting.  Sophocles 
did  not  credit  the  tradition  of  Homer 's  wander 
ing  about  blind  and  poor  to  recite  his  two  great 
epics.  He  believed  that  Homer  was  a  prince, 
or  even  a  king,  like  the  psalmist  David,  and 
asserted  that  this  could  be  proved  or  at  least 
rendered  probable  by  internal  evidence.  This 
much  is  morally  certain,  that  if  Homer  became 
blind  it  must  have  been  after  middle  life.  To 
describe  ancient  battle-scenes  so  vividly  he 
must  have  taken  part  in  them ;  and  his  knowl 
edge  of  anatomy  is  very  remarkable.  He  does 
not  make  such  mistakes  in  that  line  as  bringing 
Desdemona  to  life  after  she  has  been  smothered. 

How  can  we  do  justice  to  such  a  great-hearted 
man  as  Dr.  Andrew  P.  Peabody?  He  was  not 
intended  by  nature  for  a  revolutionary  char 
acter,  and  in  that  sense  he  was  unsuited,  like 
Everett,  for  the  time  in  which  he  lived.  If  he 
had  been  chosen  president  of  the  university 
after  the  resignation  of  Doctor  Hill,  as  George 
S.  Hillard  and  other  prominent  graduates  de 
sired,  the  great  broadening  and  liberalizing  of 
the  university,  which  has  taken  place  since, 
would  have  been  deferred  for  the  next  fifteen 
years.  He  had  little  sympathy  with  the  anti- 


34  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

slavery  movement,  and  was  decidedly  opposed 
to  the  religious  liberalism  of  his  time ;  but  Doc 
tor  Peabody's  interest  lay  in  the  salvation  of 
human  souls,  and  in  this  direction  he  had  no 
equal.  He  felt  a  personal  regard  in  every  hu 
man  being  with  whom  he  was  acquainted,  and 
this  seemed  more  important  to  him  than  ab 
stract  schemes  for  the  improvement  of  the  race 
in  general.  He  was  a  man  of  peace  and  wished 
all  others  to  be  at  peace ;  the  confusion  and  irri 
tation  that  accompanies  reform  was  most  dis 
agreeable  to  him.  Many  a  Harvard  student 
who  trembled  on  the  brink  of  an  abyss,  far 
from  home  and  left  to  his  own  devices,  after 
wards  looked  back  to  Doctor  Peabody's  helping 
hand  as  to  the  hand  of  a  beneficent  providence 
held  out  to  save  him  from  destruction;  and 
those  whom  he  was  unable  to  save  thought  of 
him  no  less  gratefully. 

In  the  autumn  of  1864  a  strange  sort  of  stu 
dent  joined  the  Sophomore  class.  He  soon 
proved  that  he  was  one  of  the  best  scholars  in 
it ;  but  to  judge  from  his  recitations  it  was  long 
since  he  had  been  to  school  or  received  any 
regular  instruction.  He  lived  chiefly  on  bread 
and  milk,  and  seemed  not  to  have  learned  how 
to  take  exercise.  It  is  feared  that  he  suffered 
much  from  loneliness  in  that  busy  hive,  where 
everyone  has  so  many  small  affairs  of  his  own 
to  attend  to.  Just  before  the  annual  examina- 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  35 

tions  lie  was  seized  with  brain-fever  and  died. 
Doctor  Peabody  conducted  the  funeral  services 
at  the  boarding-house  of  the  unfortunate  youth, 
and  the  plainness  of  the  surroundings  height 
ened  the  eloquence  of  his  address.  His  prayer 
on  that  occasion  was  so  much  above  the  average 
character  of  his  religious  discourses  that  it 
seemed  to  come  from  a  secret  fountain  of  the 
man's  nature,  which  could  only  be  drawn  upon 
for  great  occasions. 

With  all  his  tenderness  of  feeling  Doctor 
Peabody  could  be  a  very  vigorous  debater.  He 
once  carried  on  a  newspaper  argument  with 
Eev.  Dr.  Minor,  of  Boston,  on  the  temperance 
question,  in  which  he  took  the  ground  that 
drinking  wine  and  beer  did  not  necessarily  lead 
to  intemperance, — which,  rightly  considered, 
indicates  a  lack  of  self-control;  and  he  made 
this  point  in  what  his  friends,  at  least,  consid 
ered  a  satisfactory  and  conclusive  manner. 

It  is  pleasant  to  think  that  such  a  man  should 
have  met  with  unusual  prosperity  in  his  old  age 
— and  the  person  to  whom  he  owed  this  im 
provement  of  his  affairs  was  Nathaniel  Thayer, 
of  Boston.  Mr.  Thayer  took  charge  of  Doctor 
Peabody 's  property  and  trebled  or  quadrupled 
it  in  value.  Mr.  Thayer  was  very  fond  of  doing 
such  kindnesses  to  his  friends,  especially  to 
clergymen.  He  liked  the  society  of  clergymen, 
and  certainly  in  this  he  showed  excellent  judg- 


36  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

ment.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  he 
spent  his  summers  at  the  Isles  of  Shoals,  and 
generally  with  one  or  more  reverend  gentlemen 
in  his  company.  He  was  besides  a  most  munifi 
cent  patron  of  the  university.  He  provided  the 
means  for  Agassiz  to  go  on  his  expedition  to 
South  America,  and  in  conjunction  with  Doctor 
Hill  reestablished  commons  for  the  students — 
a  reform,  as  he  once  stated,  as  advantageous  to 
their  morals  as  to  their  purses.  He  afterwards 
built  the  dormitory  which  is  known  by  his  name. 
He  was  so  kind-hearted,  that  he  was  said  to 
have  given  up  banking  because  he  was  not 
hard-hearted  enough  for  the  profession.  After 
his  death  his  family  received  letters  upon  let 
ters  from  persons  of  whom  they  had  never 
heard,  but  who  wished  to  express  their  grati 
tude  for  his  generosity. 

Prof.  Benjamin  Pierce,  the  mathematician, 
was  rather  an  awe-inspiring  figure  as  he  strolled 
through  the  college  grounds,  recognizing  few 
and  speaking  to  none — apparently  oblivious  to 
everything  except  the  internal  life  which  he 
led  in  the  ' '  functions  of  curves ' '  and  ' t  celestial 
mechanics. "  He  was  a  fine-looking  man,  with 
his  ashen-gray  hair  and  beard,  his  wide  brow 
and  features  more  than  usually  regular.  When 
he  was  observed  conversing  with  President  Hill 
the  fine  scholars  shook  their  heads  wisely  as  if 
something  remarkable  was  taking  place.  The 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  37 

president  had  said  in  one  of  his  addresses  to 
the  Freshmen  that  it  would  require  a  whole 
generation  to  utilize  Professor  Pierce 's  dis 
coveries  in  algebra;  and  I  believe,  at  last 
accounts,  they  have  not  been  utilized  yet.  He 
would  often  be  seen  in  the  horse-cars  making 
figures  on  scraps  of  paper,  which  he  carried 
with  him  for  the  purpose,  oblivious  as  ever  to 
what  was  taking  place  about  him.  To  "have 
a  head  like  old  Benny  Pierce "  has  become  a 
proverb  in  Boston  and  Cambridge. 

Neither  did  he  lack  independence  of  char 
acter.  In  his  later  years  he  not  unfrequently 
attended  the  meetings  of  the  Radical  Club,  or 
Chestnut  Street  Club,  at  Mrs.  John  T.  Sar 
gent's,  in  Boston, — a  place  looked  upon  with 
piour  horror  by  good  Doctor  Peabody,  and 
equally  discredited  by  the  young  positivists 
whom  President  Eliot  had  introduced  in  the 
college  faculty.  His  remarks  on  such  occa 
sions  were  fresh,  original,  and  very  interest 
ing;  and  once  he  brought  down  the  house  with 
laughter  and  applause  by  explaining  the  men 
tal  process  which  prevented  him  from  appre 
ciating  a  joke  until  after  all  others  had  done  so. 
This  naive  confession  made  his  audience  like 
him. 

It  is  a  curious  geneological  fact  that  Pro 
fessor  Pierce  had  a  son  named  after  him  who 
would  seem  to  have  been  born  in  mirth,  to  have 


38  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

lived  in  comedy,  and  died  in  a  jest.  He  was  a 
college  Yorick  who  produced  roars  of  laughter 
in  the  Dicky  and  Hasty  Pudding  clubs.  An 
other  son,  called  affectionately  by  the  students 
"Jimmy  Mills,"  was  also  noted  for  his  wit,  and 
much  respected  as  an  admirable  instructor. 

Doctor  Holmes  says,  in  Parson  TurelPs 
Legacy : 

"Know  old  Cambridge?    Hope  you  do. — 
Born  there  ?    Don't  say  so !    I  was  too. 
(Born  in  a  house  with  a  gambrel-roof, — 
Standing  still,  if  you  must  have  proof. — 

— Nicest  place  that  ever  was  seen, — 
Colleges  red  and  Common  green, 
Sidewalks  brownish  with  trees  between." 

This  describes  Cambridge  as  it  was  forty 
years  since.  In  spite  of  its  timid  conservatism 
and  rather  donnish  society,  as  Professor  Child 
termed  it,  it  was  one  of  the  pleasantest  places 
to  live  in  on  this  side  the  Atlantic.  It  was  a 
community  of  a  refined  and  elegant  industry,  in 
which  every  one  had  a  definite  work  to  do,  and 
seemed  to  be  exactly  fitted  to  his  or  her  place,— 
not  without  some  great  figures,  too,  to  give  it 
exceptional  interest.  There  was  peace  and  re 
pose  under  the  academic  shade,  and  the  obliv- 
iousness  of  its  inhabitants  to  the  outside  world 
only  rendered  this  more  restful. 


THE    CLOSE    OF    THE    WAR  39 

How  changed  is  it  now!  The  old  Holmes 
house  has  been  long  since  pulled  down  to  make 
way  for  the  new  Law-School  building.  Bed- 
gravel  paths  have  been  replaced  by  brick  side 
walks  ;  huge  buildings  rise  before  the  eye ;  elec 
tric  cars  whiz  in  every  direction;  a  tall,  bris 
tling  iron  fence  surrounds  the  college  yard; 
and  an  enormous  clock  on  the  tower  of  Memo 
rial  Hall  detonates  the  hours  in  a  manner  which 
is  by  no  means  conducive  to  the  sleep  of  the 
just  and  the  rest  of  the  weary.  The  elderly 
graduate,  returning  to  the  dreamland  of  his 
youth,  finds  that  it  has  actually  become  a  dream 
land  and  still  exists  only  in  his  imagination. 

The  university  has  broadened  and  extended 
itself  wonderfully  under  the  present  manage 
ment,  but  the  simple  classic  charm  of  the  olden 
time  is  gone  forever. 


FRANCIS   J.  CHILD 

FIFTY  years  ago  it  was  the  fashion  at  Har 
vard,  as  well  as  at  other  colleges,  for  professors 
to  cultivate  an  austere  dignity  of  manner  for 
the  purpose  of  preserving  order  and  decorum 
in  the  recitation-room;  but  this  frequently  re 
sulted  in  having  the  opposite  effect  and  served 
as  a  temptation  to  the  students  to  play  prac 
tical  jokes  on  their  instructors.  The  habitual 
dryness  of  the  college  exercises  in  Latin,  Greek, 
and  mathematics  became  still  more  wearisome 
from  the  manner  in  which  these  were  conducted. 
The  youthful  mind  thirsting  for  knowledge 
found  the  road  to  it  for  the  most  part  a  dull  and 
dreary  pilgrimage. 

Professor  Francis  J.  Child  would  seem  to 
have  been  the  first  to  break  down  this  barrier 
and  establish  more  friendly  relations  with  his 
classes.  He  was  naturally  well  adapted  to  this. 
Perfectly  frank  and  fearless  in  his  dealings 
with  all  men,  he  hated  unnecessary  convention 
ality,  and  at  the  same  time  possessed  the  rare 
art  of  preserving  his  dignity  while  associating 
with  his  subordinates  on  friendly  terms. 
Always  kindly  and  even  sympathetic  to  the 
worst  scapegraces  in  the  division,  he  could 
assert  the  superiority  of  his  position  with  a 

40 


FRANCIS    J.  CHILD  41 

quickness  that  often  startled  those  who  were 
inclined  to  impose  on  him.  He  did  not  call  out 
the  names  of  his  class  as  if  they  were  excep 
tions  to  a  rule  in  Latin  grammar,  but  addressed 
each  one  of  them  as  if  he  felt  a  personal  interest 
in  the  man;  so  that  they  felt  encouraged  to 
speak  out  what  they  knew  and  even  remembered 
their  lessons  so  much  the  better.  As  a  conse 
quence  he  was  universally  respected,  and  there 
were  many  who  felt  an  affection  for  him  such 
as  he  could  never  have  imagined.  His  cordial 
manner  was  sufficient  of  itself  to  make  his  in 
struction  effective. 

Francis  J.  Child  was  the  first  scholar  in  his 
class  at  the  Boston  Latin  School,  and  after 
wards  at  Harvard.  That  first  scholars  do  not 
come  to  much  good  in  the  world  is  an  illusion 
of  the  envious.  It  is  true  that  they  sometimes 
break  down  their  health  by  too  strenuous  an 
effort,  but  this  may  happen  to  an  ambitious 
person  in  any  undertaking.  In  Professor 
Child's  case,  as  in  many  another,  it  proved  the 
making  of  his  fortune,  for  which  he  did  not  pos 
sess  any  exceptional  advantages.  Being  of  an 
amiable  disposition  and  good  address,  he  was 
offered  a  tutorship  on  graduation,  and  rose 
from  one  position  in  the  university  to  another 
until  he  became  the  first  authority  on  the  Eng 
lish  language  in  America.  His  whole  life  was 
spent  at  Harvard  College,  with  the  exception 


42  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

of  a  few  short  expeditions  to  Europe ;  and  his 
influence  there  steadily  increased  until  it 
became  a  power  that  was  universally  recog 
nized. 

He  was  a  short,  thick-set  man,  like  Sophocles, 
but  as  different  as  possible  in  general  aspect. 
Sophocles  was  always  slow  and  measured,  but 
Professor  Child  was  quick  and  lively  in  all  his 
movements;  and  his  face  wore  an  habitual 
cheerfulness  which  plainly  showed  the  sunny 
spirit  within.  Most  characteristic  in  his  ap 
pearance  was  the  short  curly  yellow  hair,  so 
light  in  color  that  when  it  changed  with  age,  his 
friends  scarcely  noticed  the  difference. 

During  his  academic  years  he  created  a  sen 
sation  by  declining  to  join  the  Hasty  Pudding 
Club.  This  was  looked  upon  as  a  piece  of  inor 
dinate  self-conceit;  whereas,  the  true  reason 
for  it  was  that  he  had  little  money  and  pre 
ferred  to  spend  it  in  going  to  the  theatre.  He 
said  afterwards,  in  regard  to  this,  that  he  was 
not  sorry  to  have  done  it,  for  "the  students 
placed  too  much  importance  on  such  matters. ' ' 

Through  his  interest  in  fine  acting,  he  became 
one  of  the  best  judges  of  oratory,  and  it  was 
always  interesting  to  listen  to  him  on  that  sub 
ject.  He  considered  Wendell  Phillips  the  per 
fection  of  form  and  delivery,  and  sometimes 
very  brilliant,  but  much  too  rash  in  his  state 
ments.  Everett  was  also  good,  but  lacked 


FRANCIS    J.  CHILD  43 

warmth  and  earnestness.  Choate  was  purely  a 
legal  pleader,  and  outside  of  the  court-room 
not  very  effective.  He  thought  Webster  one  of 
the  greatest  of  orators,  fully  equal  to  Cicero; 
but  they  both  lacked  the  poetical  element. 
Sumner's  sentences  were  florid  and  his  deliv 
ery  rather  mechanical,  but  he  made  a  strong 
impression  owing  to  the  evident  purity  of  his 
motives.  The  general  public,  however,  had  be 
come  suspicious  of  oratory,  so  that  it  was  no 
longer  as  serviceable  as  formerly. 

" After  all,"  he  would  say,  "the  main  point 
for  a  speaker  is  to  have  a  good  cause.  Then,  if 
he  is  thoroughly  in  earnest,  we  enjoy  hearing 
him."  He  once  illustrated  his  subject  by  the 
story  of  a  Union  general  who  tried  to  rally  the 
fugitives  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  and  said, 
waving  his  sword  in  the  air :  "  In  the  name  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  I  command,  I 
exhort  you,"  etc.,  while  a  private  soldier  lean 
ing  against  a  tree,  with  a  quid  of  tobacco  in  his 
mouth,  remarked,  ' '  That  man  can  make  a  good 
speech,"  but  showed  no  intentions  of  moving. 
This  summary,  however,  gives  no  adequate  idea 
of  the  brightness  of  Professor  Child's  conver 
sation.  He  was  an  animated  talker,  full  of  wit 
and  originality. 

When  the  classes  at  Harvard  were  smaller 
than  at  present,  he  would  arrange  them  in  Uni 
versity  Hall  for  declamation,  so  as  to  cover  a's 


44  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

much  space  as  possible.  They  did  not  under 
stand  this  until  he  said, ' '  Now  we  have  a  larger 
audience,  if  not  more  numerous;7'  and  this 
placed  every  one  in  the  best  of  humor. 

Besides  his  regular  college  duties,  Professor 
Child  had  three  distinct  interests  to  which  he 
devoted  himself  in  leisure  hours  with  all  the 
energy  of  an  ardent  nature.  The  first  of  these, 
editing  a  complete  edition  of  the  old  English 
ballads,  was  the  labor  of  his  life,  and  with  it 
his  name  will  always  be  associated,  for  it  is  a 
work  that  can  neither  be  superseded  nor  ex 
celled.  He  was  the  first  to  arouse  English 
scholars  to  the  importance  of  this,  as  may  be 
read  in  the  dedication  of  a  partial  edition  taken 
from  the  Percy  manuscripts  and  published  in 
London  in  1861.  He  recognized  in  them  the 
true  foundation  of  the  finest  literature  of  the 
modern  world,  and  he  considered  them  so  much 
the  better  from  the  fact  that  they  were  not  com 
posed  to  be  printed,  but  to  be  recited  or  sung. 
Matthew  Arnold  wrote  in  a  letter  from  Amer 
ica:  "  After  lecturing  at  Taunton,  I  came  to 
Boston  with  Professor  Child  of  Harvard,  a  very 
pleasant  man,  who  is  a  great  authority  on 
ballad  poetry, "  very  warm  praise,  considering 
the  source  whence  it  came.  Late  in  life  Pro 
fessor  Child  edited  separate  versions  in  modern 
English  of  some  curious  old  ballads,  and  sent 
them  as  Christmas  presents  to  his  friends. 


FRANCIS    J.  CHILD  45 

It  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  have  been 
interested  as  well  in  the  rude  songs  of  the 
British  sailors,  which  he  heard  on  crossing  the 
ocean.  He  was  mightily  amused  at  their  simple 
refrain : 

"  Haul  in  the  bowlin',  long-tailed  bowlin', 
Haul  in  the  bowlin'  Kitty,  0,  my  darlinV 

"That  rude  couplet,"  he  said,  "contains  all 
the  original  elements  of  poetry.  Firstly,  the 
authropomorphic  element;  the  sailor  imagines 
his  bowline  as  if  it  had  life.  Secondly,  the 
humorous  element,  for  the  bowline  is  all  tail. 
Thirdly,  the  reflective  element ;  the  monotonous 
motion  makes  him  think  of  home, — of  his  wife 
or  sweetheart, — and  he  ends  the  second  line 
with  '  Kitty,  0,  my  darlinV  I  like  such  primi 
tive  verses  much  better  than  the  'Pike  County 
Ballads/  a  mixture  of  sentiment  and  prof  an- 
ity." 

Then  he  went  on  to  say :  "  I  want  my  children, 
when  they  grow  up,  to  read  the  classics.  My 
boy  will  go  to  college,  of  course;  and  he  will 
translate  Homer  and  Virgil,  and  Horace, — I 
think  very  highly  of  Horace;  but  the  literal 
meaning  is  a  different  thing  from  understand 
ing  the  poetry.  Then  my  daughters  will  learn 
French  and  German,  and  I  shall  expect  them  to 
read  Schiller  and  Goethe,  Moliere  and  Eacine, 


46  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

as  well  as  Shakespeare  and  Milton.  After  that 
they  can  read  what  they  like,  but  they  will  have 
a  standard  by  which  to  judge  other  authors." 
He  was  afraid  that  the  students  wasted  too 
much  time  in  painting  play-bills  and  other 
similar  exercises  of  ingenuity,  which  lead  to 
nothing  in  the  end. 

He  gave  some  excellent  advice  to  a  young 
lady  who  was  about  visiting  Europe  for  the 
first  time,  who  doubted  if  she  could  properly 
appreciate  the  works  of  art  and  other  fine 
things  that  she  would  be  called  upon  to  admire. 
" Don't  be  afraid  of  that,"  said  Professor 
Child;  "you  will  probably  like  best  just  those 
sights  which  you  do  not  expect  to ;  but  if  you 
do  not  like  them,  say  so,  and  let  that  be  the  end 
of  it.  Now,  I  am  so  unfortunate  as  not  to  appre 
ciate  Michel  Angelo.  His  great  horned  Moses 
is  nothing  more  to  me  than  a  Silenus  in  a  gar 
den.  The  fact  does  not  trouble  me  much,  for  I 
find  enough  to  interest  me  as  it  is,  and  I  can 
enjoy  life  without  the  Moses." 

After  mentioning  a  number  of  desirable  ex 
peditions,  he  added:  "You  will  go  to  Dresden, 
of  course,  to  see  KaphaePs  Madonna  and 
Titian's  'Tribute  Money';  and  then  there  are 
the  Green  Vaults.  I  have  known  the  Green 
Vaults  to  have  an  excellent  effect  on  some 
ladies  of  my  acquaintance.  They  did  not  care 
one-quarter  as  much  for  a  diamond  ring  as  they 


FRANCIS    J.  CHILD  47 

did  before  they  went  into  the  Green  Vaults. 
You  will  see  a  jewelled  fireplace  there  which  is 
worth  more  than  all  I  own  in  the  world. ' '  The 
young  lady  looked,  however,  as  if  it  would  take 
more  than  the  Green  Vaults  to  cure  her  love  for 
jewelry. 

Professor  Child's  second  important  interest 
was  politics,  and  as  a  rule  he  much  preferred 
talking  on  this  to  literary  subjects. 

Josiah  Quincy  was  the  most  distinguished 
president  that  Harvard  College  has  had,  unless 
we  except  President  Eliot;  and  his  admirers 
have  been  accustomed  to  refer  to  his  adminis 
tration  as  "Consule  Planco."  His  politics  did 
not  differ  widely  from  those  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  who  was  the  earliest  statesman  of  the 
anti-slavery  struggle,  and  a  true  hero  in  his 
way.  After  Quincy,  the  presidents  of  the  uni 
versity  became  more  and  more  conservative, 
until  Felton,  who  was  a  pronounced  pro-slavery 
"Whig,  and  even  attempted  to  defend  the  in 
vasion  of  Kansas  in  a  public  meeting.  The 
professors  and  tutors  naturally  followed  in  the 
train  of  the  president,  while  a  majority  of  the 
sons  of  wealthy  men  among  the  undergraduates 
always  took  the  southern  side.  The  son  of  an 
abolitionist  who  wished  to  go  through  Harvard 
in  those  days  found  it  a  penitential  pilgrimage. 
He  was  certain  to  suffer  an  extra  amount  of 


48  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

hazing,  and  to  endure  a  kind  of  social  ostracism 
throughout  the  course. 

For  many  years  before  the  election  of  Lin 
coln,  Professors  Child,  Lowell,  and  Jennison 
were  the  only  pronounced  anti-slavery  members 
of  the  faculty ;  and  this  left  Francis  J.  Child  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  it  almost  alone,  for  Lowell's 
connection  with  the  university  was  semi 
detached,  and  although  he  was  always  prepared 
to  face  the  enemy  in  an  honest  argument,  he 
was  not  often  on  the  ground  to  do  so. 

Now  that  the  most  potent  cause  of  political 
agitation  resides  in  the  far-off  problem  of  the 
Philippine  Islands  it  is  difficult  to  realize  the 
popular  excitement  of  those  times,  when  both 
parties  believed  that  the  very  existence  of  the 
nation  depended  on  the  result  of  the  elections. 
Professor  Child  was  not  the  least  of  an  alarm 
ist,  and  deprecated  all  unnecessary  controversy. 
In  1861  he  even  cautioned  Wendell  Phillips 
Garrison  against  introducing  too  strong  an 
appeal  for  emancipation  in  his  commencement 
address ;  but  he  was  as  firm  as  a  granite  rock 
on  any  question  of  principle,  and  when  he  con 
sidered  a  protest  in  order  he  was  certain  to 
make  one.  He  did  not  trust  party  newspapers 
for  his  information,  but  obtained  it  from  per 
sons  who  were  in  a  position  to  know,  and  his 
facts  were  so  well  supported  by  the  quick  sallies 
of  his  wit  that  those  who  interfered  with  him 


PROFESSOR    FRANCIS  J.  CHILD 


FRANCIS    J.  CHILD  49 

once  rarely  attempted  it  again.  Moreover,  as 
we  all  see  now,  he  had  the  right  on  his  side. 

He  was  proud  of  having  voted  twice  for 
Abraham  Lincoln.  What  he  thought  of  John 
Brown,  at  the  time  of  the  Harper's  Ferry  raid, 
is  uncertain;  but  many  years  later,  when  one 
of  his  friends  published  a  small  book  in  vindi 
cation  of  Brown  against  the  attack  of  Lincoln's 
two  secretaries,  he  wrote  to  him : 

"I  congratulate  you  on  the  success  of  your 
statement,  which  I  have  read  with  very  great 
interest.  John  Brown  was  like  a  star  and  still 
shines  in  the  firmament.  We  could  not  have 
done  without  him." 

He  considered  Governor  Andrew's  approba 
tion  of  John  Brown  as  more  important  than 
anything  that  would  be  written  about  him  in 
the  future. 

He  did  not  trouble  himself  much  in  regard  to 
Lincoln's  second  election,  for  he  saw  that  it  was 
a  foregone  conclusion ;  but  after  Andrew  John- 
son's  treachery  in  1866,  he  felt  there  was  a 
need  of  unusual  exertion.  When  the  November 
elections  arrived,  he  told  his  classes:  "Next 
Tuesday  I  shall  have  to  serve  my  country  and 
there  will  be  no  recitations."  When  Tuesday 
came  we  found  him  on  the  sidewalk  distributing 
Eepublican  ballots  and  soliciting  votes;  and 
there  he  remained  until  the  polls  closed  in  the 
afternoon.  He  had  little  patience  with  educated 

4 


50  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

men  who  neglected  their  political  duties.  "Why 
are  you  discouraged?"  he  would  ask.  "Times 
will  change.  Eemember  the  Free-soil  move 
ment  !"  He  attended  caucuses  as  regularly  as 
the  meetings  of  the  faculty,  and  served  as  a 
delegate  to  a  number  of  conventions.  More 
than  once  he  aroused  the  good  citizens  of 
Cambridge  to  the  danger  of  insidious  plots 
by  low  demagogues  against  the  public  wel 
fare.  The  poet  Longfellow  took  notice  of  this 
and  spoke  of  him  as  an  invaluable  man. 

On  another  occasion  Professor  Child  was 
discoursing  to  his  class  on  oratory  and  men 
tioned  the  fact  that  Webster  and  Choate  both 
came  from  Dartmouth;  that  Wendell  Phillips 
graduated  at  Harvard,  but  the  university  had 
not  seen  much  of  him  since.  At  the  mention 
of  Wendell  Phillips  some  of  the  boys  from  pro- 
slavery  families  began  to  sneer.  Professor 
Child  raised  himself  up  and  said  determinedly, 
"Wendell  Phillips  is  as  good  an  orator  as  either 
of  them!"  He  was  chagrined,  however,  at 
Phillips 's  later  public  course, — his  support  of 
Socialism  and  General  Butler.  Neither  did  he 
like  Phillips 's  Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration,  in 
which  he  advocated  the  dagger  and  dynamite 
for  tyrants.  "A  tyrant,"  said  Professor  Child, 
"is  what  anyone  chooses  to  imagine.  My  hired 
man  may  consider  me  a  tyrant  and  blow  me  up 
according  to  Mr.  Phillips 's  principle."  The 


FRANCIS    J.  CHILD  51 

assassins  of  Garfield  and  McKinley  evidently 
supposed  that  they  were  ridding  the  earth  of 
two  of  the  worst  tyrants  that  ever  existed.  Pro 
fessor  Child  was  exceptionally  liberal.  He 
even  supported  Woman  Suffrage  for  a  time, 
but  he  held  Socialism  in  a  kind  of  holy  horror, 
—such  as  one  feels  of  a  person  who  is  always 
making  blunders. 

In  1878  Professor  Child  and  some  other 
political  reformers  were  elected  to  a  Congres 
sional  convention  and  went  with  the  hope  of 
securing  a  candidate  who  would  represent  the 
educated  classes, — the  incumbent  at  that  time 
being  a  shoe  manufacturer.  They  argued  and 
worked  hard  all  day,  but  without  success.  Late 
in  the  afternoon  the  shoe  manufacturer,  a 
worthy  man  but  very  ignorant,  who  afterwards 
became  governor  of  the  State,  was  renomi- 
nated;  and  when  it  was  proposed  to  make  the 
nomination  unanimous  Professor  Child  called 
out  such  an  emphatic  No  that  it  seemed  to  shake 
the  whole  assembly.  Not  content  with  this  he 
entered  a  protest  next  day  in  the  Boston  Adver 
tiser.  He  was  so  much  used  up  by  the  exertion 
that  he  was  unable  to  attend  to  his  classes. 
Some  years  later  he  enjoyed  the  satisfaction  of 
seeing  his  candidate,  Theodore  Lyman,  nomi 
nated  and  elected. 

Emerson  once  delivered  a  lecture  in  Boston 
on  university  life  in  which  he  made  the  rather 


52  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

bold  statement  that  "in  the  course  of  twenty 
years  the  rank-list  is  likely  to  become  in 
verted.  "  One  of  Professor  Child's  class  para 
phrased  this  lecture  for  a  theme,  and  against 
the  sentence  above  quoted  the  Professor  wrote : 
' '  A  statement  frequently  made,  but  what  is  the 
fact?"  I  do  not  think  he  liked  Emerson  quite 
so  well  after  this,  and  he  can  hardly  be  blamed 
for  feeling  so.  It  was  not  only  a  disparage 
ment  of  good  scholarship  but  like  a  personal 
slight  upon  himself.  That  Emerson  graduated 
near  the  foot  of  his  class  ought  not  to  prove 
that  an  idle  college  life  is  a  sign  of  genius. 

Professor  Child  talked  freely  in  regard  to 
the  meetings  of  the  college  faculty,  for  he 
believed  that  graduates  had  a  right  to  know 
about  them.  He  quoted  some  amusing  anec 
dotes  of  a  certain  professor  who  led  the  oppo 
sition  against  President  Eliot  and  praised  the 
dignified  manner  with  which  Eliot  regarded 
him.  In  1879  he  said  one  day : 

"We  are  in  the  half-way  stage  between  a  col 
lege  and  a  university,  and  there  is  consequently 
great  confusion.  If  we  once  became  a  univer 
sity,  pure  and  simple,  all  that  would  be  over; 
but  the  difficulty  is  that  the  material  which 
comes  to  us  is  so  poor.  I  do  not  mean  that 
the  young  men  are  lacking  in  intelligence,  but 
the  great  majority  of  them  do  not  brace  them 
selves  to  the  work.  As  Doctor  Hedge  says,  the 


FRANCIS    J.  CHILD  53 

heart  of  the  college  is  in  the  boating  and  ball- 
playing  and  not  in  its  studies." 

His  third  occupation  and  chief  recreation 
was  his  rose-garden.  The  whole  space  between 
his  front  piazza  and  Kirkland  Street  was  filled 
with  rose-bushes  which  he  tended  himself,  from 
the  first  loosening  of  the  earth  in  spring  until 
the  straw  sheaf -caps  were  tied  about  them  in 
November.  What  more  delightful  occupation 
for  a  scholar  than  working  in  a  rose-garden! 
There  his  friends  were  most  likely  to  find  him 
in  suitable  weather,  and  when  June  came  they 
were  sure  to  receive  a  share  of  the  bountiful 
blossoms ;  nor  did  he  ever  forget  the  sick  and 
suffering. 

He  was  greatly  interested  to  hear  of  a  Ger 
man  doctor  at  Munich  who  had  a  rose-garden 
with  more  than  a  hundred  varieties  in  it.  "I 
should  like  to  know  that  man,"  he  said; 
" wouldn't  we  have  a  good  talk  together?"  He 
complained  that  although  everybody  liked  roses 
few  were  sufficiently  interested  in  them  to  dis 
tinguish  the  different  kinds.  Naturally  rose- 
bugs  were  his  special  detestation.  "Saving 
your  presence,"  he  said  to  President  Felton's 
daughter,  "I  will  crush  this  insect;"  to  which 
she  aptly  replied,  "I  certainly  would  not  have 
my  presence  save  him."  When  he  heard  of  the 
Buffalo-bug  he  exclaimed:  "Are  we  going  to 
have  another  pest  to  contend  with!  I  think  it 


54  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

is  a  serious  question  whether  the  insect  world 
is  not  going  to  get  the  better  of  us. ' ' 

After  his  painful  death  at  the  Massachusetts 
Hospital  in  September,  1896,  the  president  and 
fellows  of  the  university  voted  to  set  apart 
little  Holden  Chapel,  the  oldest  building  on  the 
college  grounds,  and  yet  one  of  the  most  digni 
fied,  for  an  English  library  dedicated  to  the 
memory  of  Francis  J.  Child.  Such  an  honor 
had  never  been  decreed  for  president  or  pro 
fessor  before;  and  it  gives  him  the  distinction 
that  we  all  feel  he  deserved.  It  is  much  more 
appropriate  to  him,  and  satisfactory  than  a 
marble  statue  in  Saunders  Theatre  would  have 
been,  or  a  stained-glass  window  in  Memorial 
Hall.  Yet  his  presence  still  lingers  in  the  mem 
ory  of  his  friends,  like  the  fragrance  of  his  own 
roses,  after  the  petals  have  fallen  from  their 
stems. 


LONGFELLOW 

IT  has  been  estimated  that  there  were  four 
hundred  poets  in  England  in  the  time  of 
Shakespeare,  and  in  the  century  during  which 
Dante  lived  Europe  fairly  swarmed  with  poets, 
many  of  them  of  high  excellence.  Frederick  II. 
of  Germany  and  Eichard  I.  of  England  were 
both  good  poets,  and  were  as  proud  of  their 
verses  as  they  were  of  their  military  exploits. 
Frederick  II.  may  be  said  to  have  founded  the 
vernacular  in  which  Dante  wrote;  and  Long 
fellow  rendered  into  English  a  poem  of  Rich 
ard's  which  he  composed  during  his  cruel  im 
prisonment  in  Austria.  A  knight  who  could 
not  compose  a  song  and  sing  it  to  the  guitar 
was  as  rare  as  a  modern  gentleman  of  fashion 
who  cannot  play  golf.  When  James  Eussell 
Lowell  resigned  the  chair  of  poetry  at  Harvard 
no  one  could  be  found  who  could  exactly  fill  his 
place,  and  it  was  much  the  same  at  Oxford  after 
Matthew  Arnold  retired. 

The  difference  between  then  and  now  would 
seem  to  reside  in  the  fact,  that  poetry  is  more 
easily  remembered  than  prose.  From  the  time 
of  Homer  until  long  after  the  invention  of 
printing,  not  only  were  ballad-singers  and  harp 
ers  in  good  demand,  but  the  recital  of  poetry 

55 


56  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

was  also  a  favorite  means  of  livelihood  to  indi 
gent  scholars  and  others,  who  wandered  about 
like  the  minstrels.  The  "article,"  as  Tom 
Moore  called  it,  was  in  active  request.  Poetry 
was  recited  in  the  camp  of  Alexander,  in  the 
Koman  baths,  in  the  castles  on  the  Ehine,  and 
English  hostelries.  Now  it  is  replaced  by  novel- 
reading,  and  there  are  few  who  know  how  much 
pleasure  can  be  derived  on  a  winter's  evening 
by  impromptu  poetic  recitations.  If  a  popular 
interest  in  poetry  should  revive  again,  I  have 
no  doubt  that  hundreds  of  poets  would  spring 
up,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  ground  and  fill  the  air 
with  their  pleasant  harmonies.  The  editor  of 
the  Atlantic  informed  Professor  Child  that  he 
had  a  whole  barrelful  of  poetry  in  his  house, 
much  of  it  excellent,  but  that  there  was  no  use 
he  could  make  of  it. 

Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow  was  as  irre 
pressible  a  rhymer  as  John  Watts  himself,  and 
fortunately  he  had  a  father  who  recognized  the 
value  of  his  talent  and  assisted  him  in  a  judi 
cious  manner,  instead  of  placing  obstacles  in 
his  way,  as  the  father  of  Watts  is  supposed  to 
have  done.  The  account  that  Eev.  Samuel 
Longfellow  has  given  us  of  the  youth  of  his 
brother  is  highly  instructive,  and  ought  to  be 
of  service  to  all  young  men  who  fancy  they  are 
destined  by  nature  for  a  poetic  career.  He  tells 
us  how  Henry  published  his  first  poem  in  the 


LONGFELLOW  57 

Portland  Gazette,  and  how  his  boyish  exultation 
was  dashed  with  cold  water  the  same  evening  by 
Judge  -  — ,  who  said  of  it  in  his  presence: 
' '  Stiff,  remarkably  stiff,  and  all  the  figures  are 
borrowed. ' ' 

The  "Fight  at  Lovell's  Pond7'  would  not 
have  been  a  remarkable  poem  for  a  youth  of 
nineteen,  but  it  showed  very  good  promise  for 
the  age  at  which  it  was  written.  Few  boys  at 
that  age  can  write  anything  that  will  hang 
together  as  a  poem..  Young  Longfellow  was  a 
better  poet  at  thirteen  than  his  father's  friend, 
the  Judge,  was  a  critic.  His  verses  were  by  no 
means  stiff,  but  on  the  contrary  showed  indica 
tions  of  that  natural  grace  and  facility  of  ex 
pression  for  which  he  became  afterwards  dis 
tinguished.  As  for  the  originality  of  his 
comparisons  it  is  doubtful  also  if  the  Judge 
could  have  proved  his  point  on  that  question. 
They  were  original  to  Henry,  if  to  nobody  else. 

Fortunately  for  Henry  he  was  also  a  fine 
scholar.  The  following  year  saw  him  enter  as 
a  Freshman  at  Bowdoin  College,  which  was 
equal  to  entering  Harvard  at  the  age  of  fif 
teen.  Look  out  for  the  youngest  members  of  a 
college  class !  They  may  not  distinguish  them 
selves  at  the  university,  but  they  are  the  ones 
who,  if  they  live,  outstrip  all  others.  But  Long 
fellow  did  distinguish  himself.  In  his  Junior 
year  he  composed  seventeen  poems  which  were 


58  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

published,  then  and  afterwards,  in  the  United 
States  Literary  Gazette,  where  his  name  ap 
peared  beside  that  of  William  Cullen  Bryant. 
This  was  quite  exceptional  in  the  history  of 
American  literature,  and  as  the  editor  of  the 
Literary  Gazette  stated  it:  "A  young  tree 
which  puts  forth  so  many  blossoms  is  likely  to 
bear  good  fruits." 

With  the  close  of  his  college  course  came  the 
important  question  of  Longfellow's  future 
occupation.  His  father,  with  good  practical 
judgment,  foresaw  that  poetry  alone  would  not 
serve  to  make  his  son  self-supporting  and  inde 
pendent  ;  but  the  boy  hated  to  give  this  up  for 
a  more  prosaic  employment.  While  the  discus 
sion  was  going  on  between  them,  the  authorities 
of  Bowdoin  solved  the  problem  for  them  both 
by  offering  young  Longfellow  a  professorship 
of  modern  languages  on  condition  that  he  would 
spend  two  years  in  Europe  preparing  himself 
for  the  position.  He  had  graduated  fourth  in 
his  class. 

Does  not  this  prove  the  advantage  of  good 
scholarship?  Was  the  rank  list  inverted  in 
Longfellow's  case?  I  think  not.  He  had  lived 
a  virtuous  and  industrious  life,  not  studying 
for  rank  or  honor,  but  because  he  enjoyed  doing 
what  was  right  and  fit  for  a  young  man  to  do ; 
and  now  the  reward  had  come  to  him,  like  the 
sun  breaking  through  the  clouds  which  seemed 


LONGFELLOW  59 

to  obscure  his  future  prospects.  Still,  there 
was  a  hard  road  before  him.  It  is  very  pleasant 
to  travel  rapidly  through  foreign  countries, 
seeing  the  best  that  is  in  them  and  to  return 
home  with  a  multitude  of  fresh  impressions; 
but  living  and  working  a  long  time  in  another 
country  seems  too  much  like  exile.  The  lone 
liness  of  the  situation  becomes  a  weary  burden, 
and  it  is  dangerous  from  its  very  loneliness. 
Many  have  died  or  lost  their  health  under  such 
conditions  (in  fact  Longfellow  came  near  losing 
his  life  from  Roman  fever),  and  he  wrote  from 
Paris:  "Here  one  can  keep  evil  at  a  dis 
tance  as  well  as  elsewhere,  though,  to  be  sure, 
temptations  are  multiplied  a  thousand-fold  if 
he  is  willing  to  enter  into  them.'7  A  young 
man's  first  experience  in  London  or  Paris  is  a 
dangerous  sense  of  freedom;  for  all  the  cus 
tomary  restraints  of  his  daily  life  have  been 
removed. 

Mrs.  Stowe  says  of  her  beautiful  character, 
"Eva  St.  Clair,"  that  all  bad  influences  rolled 
off  from  her  like  dew  from  a  cabbage  leaf,  and 
it  was  the  same  with  Longfellow  throughout. 
He  lived  in  France,  Spain,  Italy,  and  Germany, 
and  then  returned  to  Portland,  the  same  true 
American  as  when  he  left  there,  without  foreign 
ways  or  modes  of  thinking,  and  with  no  more 
than  the  slight  aroma  of  a  foreign  air  upon 
him.  Longfellow  and  his  whole  family  were 


60  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

natural  cosmopolitans.  There  was  nothing 
of  the  proverbial  Yankee  in  their  compo 
sition. 

Whittier  was  a  Quaker  by  creed,  but  he  was 
also  much  of  a  Yankee  in  style  and  manner. 
Emerson  looked  like  a  Yankee,  and  possessed 
the  cool  Yankee  shrewdness.  Lowell's  "Big- 
low  Papers7'  testified  to  the  fundamental 
Yankee;  but  the  Longfellows  were  endowed 
with  a  peculiar  refinement  and  purity  which 
seemed  to  distinguish  them  as  much  in  Cam 
bridge  or  London  as  it  did  in  Portland,  where 
there  has  always  been  a  rather  superior  sort  of 
society.  It  was  like  French  refinement  without 
being  Gallic.  No  wonder  that  a  famous  poet 
should  emanate  from  such  a  family. 

What  we  notice  especially  in  the  Longfellow 
Letters  during  this  European  sojourn  is  the 
admonition  of  Henry's  father,  that  German  lit 
erature  was  more  important  than  Italian, — and 
the  poet  was  always  largely  influenced  by  this 
afterwards ;  that  Henry  did  not  find  Paris  par 
ticularly  attractive,  and  on  the  whole  preferred 
the  Spanish  character  to  the  French  on  account 
of  its  deeper  under-currents ;  that  he  did  not 
seem  to  realize  the  danger  that  menaced  him 
from  Spanish  brigands,  in  spite  of  the  black 
crosses  by  the  roadside;  and  that  he  was  not 
vividly  impressed  by  the  famous  works  of  art 
in  the  Louvre  gallery.  He  only  notices  that  one 


LONGFELLOW  61 

of  Correggio's  figures  resembles  a  young  lady 
in  Portland. 

Longfellow  would  seem  to  have  been  always 
the  same  in  regard  to  his  appreciation  of  art. 
When  he  was  in  Italy,  in  1869,  he  visited  all  the 
picture  galleries  and  evidently  enjoyed  doing 
so ;  but  it  was  easy  to  see  that  his  brother,  Eev. 
Samuel  Longfellow,  felt  a  much  livelier  interest 
in  the  subject  than  he  did;  and  injured  frescos 
or  mutilated  statues,  like  the  Torso  of  the  Bel- 
videre,  were  objects  of  aversion  to  him.  Poets 
and  musical  composers  see  more  with  their  ears 
than  they  do  with  their  eyes. 

The  single  work  of  art  that  attracted  him 
strongly  at  this  time  was  a  statue  of  Venus,  by 
Canova,  which  he  compares  to  the  Venus  de' 
Medici,  and  his  brother  Samuel  remarks  that 
he  was  always  more  attracted  by  sculpture 
than  painting.  Canova  was  a  genius  very  simi 
lar  to  Longfellow  himself,  as  nearly  as  an  Ital 
ian  could  be  made  to  match  an  American,  and 
he  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  reputation. 

In  1829  Longfellow  returned  to  Portland  and 
was  immediately  chosen  a  professor  at  Bowdoin 
College,  where  he  remained  for  the  next  seven 
years.  When,  in  1836,  Professor  Ticknor  re 
tired  from  his  position  as  instructor  of  modern 
languages  at  Harvard,  his  place  was  offered  to 
Longfellow  and  accepted.  This  brought  him 
into  the  literary  centre  of  New  England,  and 


62  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

one  of  the  first  acquaintances  he  made  there 
was  Charles  Sumner,  who  was  lecturing  before 
the  Harvard  Law-School. 

The  friendship  between  these  two  great  men 
commenced  at  once  and  only  ceased  at  Sum 
ner  's  death  in  1874,  when  Longfellow  wrote  one 
of  the  finest  of  his  shorter  poems  in  tribute  to 
Sumner  *s  memory.  It  was  as  poetic  a  friend 
ship  as  that  between  Emerson  and  Carlyle ;  but 
whereas  Emerson  and  Carlyle  had  differences 
of  opinion,  Sumner  and  Longfellow  were 
always  of  one  mind.  When  Sumner  made  his 
Fanueil  Hall  speech  against  the  fugitive  slave 
law,  which  was  simply  fighting  revolution  with 
revolution,  and  Harvard  College  and  the  whole 
of  Cambridge  turned  against  him,  Longfellow 
stood  firm;  and  it  may  be  suspected  that  he 
had  many  an  unpleasant  discussion  with  his 
aristocratic  acquaintances  on  this  point.  It  was 
considered  bad  enough  to  support  Garrison, 
but  supporting  Sumner  was  a  great  deal  worse, 
for  Sumner  was  an  orator  who  wielded  a  power 
only  inferior  to  Webster.  Fortunately  for 
Longfellow,  his  connection  with  the  university 
ceased  not  long  after  Sumner 's  election  to  the 
Senate ;  and  the  unpleasantness  of  his  position 
may  have  been  the  leading  cause  of  his  retire 
ment. 

Sumner  was  the  best  friend  Longfellow  had, 
and  perhaps  the  best  that  he  could  have  had. 


LONGFELLOW  63 

There  was  Emerson,  of  course,  and  Longfellow 
was  always  on  friendly  terms  with  him;  but 
Emerson  had  a  habit  of  catechising  his  com 
panions  which  some  of  them  did  not  altogether 
like;  and  this  may  have  been  the  case  with 
Longfellow,  for  they  never  became  very  inti 
mate.  Sumner,  on  the  contrary,  had  always  a 
large  stock  of  information  to  dispense,  not  only 
concerning  American  affairs  but  those  of  other 
nations,  in  which  Longfellow  never  lost  his  in 
terest.  More  important  to  him  even  than  this 
is  the  fact  that  Sumner 's  statements  were 
always  to  be  trusted.  It  may  be  surmised  that 
it  was  not  so  much  similarity  of  opinion  as  the 
purity  of  their  motives  that  brought  the  poet 
and  statesman  together. 

As  soon  as  Sumner  returned  from  Washing 
ton,  in  spring  or  summer,  he  would  go  out  to 
call  on  Longfellow ;  and  it  was  a  pleasant  sight 
to  see  them  walking  together  on  a  June  evening 
beneath  the  overarching  elms  of  historic  Brattle 
Street.  They  were  a  pair  of  majestic-looking 
men ;  and  though  Longfellow  was  nearly  a  head 
shorter  than  Sumner,  his  broad  shoulders  gave 
him  an  appearance  of  strength,  as  his  capacious 
head  and  strong,  finely  cut  features  evidently 
denoted  an  exceptional  intellect.  He  wore  his 
hair  poetically  long,  almost  to  his  coat  collar; 
and  yet  there  was  not  the  slightest  air  of  the 
Bohemian  about  him.  They  seemed  to  be  obliv- 


64  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

ions  of  everything  except  their  conversation; 
and  if  this  could  have  been  recorded  it  might 
prove  to  be  as  interesting  as  the  poetry  of  the 
one  and  the  orations  of  the  other.  They  were 
evidently  talking  on  great  subjects,  and  the 
earnestness  on  Sumner's  face  was  reflected  on 
Longfellow's  as  in  a  mirror. 

Hawthorne  was  a  classmate  of  Longfellow, 
and  in  the  biography  of  the  latter  there  are  a 
number  of  letters  from  one  to  the  other  which 
are  always  friendly, — but  never  more  than  that 
on  Hawthorne's  side, — with  one  exception, 
where  he  thanks  Longfellow  for  a  compliment 
ary  review  of  "Twice-Told  Tales"  in  the 
North  American.  At  that  time  the  North 
American  was  considered  an  authority  which 
could  make  or  unmake  an  author's  reputation; 
and  Longfellow  may  be  said  to  have  opened  the 
door  for  Hawthorne  into  the  great  world. 
Hawthorne's  friendship  for  President  Pierce 
proved  an  advantage  to  him  financially,  but  it 
also  became ,  a  barrier  between  him  and  the 
other  literary  men  of  his  time.  Of  course  he 
believed  what  his  friend  Pierce  told  him  con 
cerning  public  affairs,  and  when  he  found  that 
his  other  friends  had  not  the  same  faith  in 
Pierce 's  veracity  he  became  more  strongly  a 
partisan  of  the  pro-slavery  cause  on  that  ac 
count.  Longfellow  frankly  admitted  that  he 
did  not  understand  Hawthorne,  and  he  did  not 


LONGFELLOW  65 

believe  that  anyone  at  Bowdoin  College  under 
stood  him.  He  was  the  most  secretive  man  that 
he  ever  knew;  but  so  far  as  genius  was  con 
cerned,  he  believed  that  Hawthorne  would  out 
live  every  other  writer  of  his  time.  He  had 
the  will  of  a  great  conqueror. 

Goethe  has  been  called  the  pampered  child 
of  genius,  of  fortune,  and  the  muse;  but  if 
Goethe  had  greater  celebrity  he  never  enjoyed 
half  the  worldly  prosperity  of  Longfellow. 
While  Emerson  was  earning  a  hard  livelihood 
by  lecturing  in  the  West,  and  Whittier  was 
dwelling  in  a  country  farm-house,  Longfellow 
occupied  one  of  the  most  desirable  residences 
in  or  about  Boston,  and  had  all  the  means  at 
his  command  that  a  modest  man  could  wish  for. 
The  Craigie  House  was,  and  still  remains,  the 
finest  residence  in  Cambridge, — "formerly  the 
head-quarters  of  Washington,  and  afterwards 
of  the  Muses."  Good  architecture  never 
becomes  antiquated,  and  the  Craigie  House  is 
not  only  spacious  within,  but  dignified  without. 

One  could  best  realize  Longfellow's  opulence 
by  walking  through  his  library  adjacent  to  the 
eastern  piazza,  and  gazing  at  the  magnificent 
editions  of  foreign  authors  which  had  been  pre 
sented  to  him  by  his  friends  and  admirers ;  espe 
cially  the  fine  set  of  Chateaubriand's  works,  in 
all  respects  worthy  of  a  royal  collection.  There 


66  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

is  no  ornament  in  a  house  that  testifies  to  the 
quality  of  the  owner  like  a  handsome  library. 

Byron  would  seem  to  have  been  the  only  other 
poet  that  has  enjoyed  such  prosperity,  although 
Bryant,  as  editor  of  a  popular  newspaper,  may 
have  approached  it  closely;  but  a  city  house, 
with  windows  on  only  two  sides,  is  not  like  a 
handsome  suburban  residence.  Longfellow 
could  look  across  the  Cambridge  marshes  and 
see  the  sunsets  reflected  in  the  water  of  the 
Charles  Eiver. 

Here  he  lived  from  1843,  when  he  married 
Miss  Appleton,  a  daughter  of  one  of  the  wealth 
iest  merchant-bankers  of  Boston,  until  his  death 
by  pneumonia  in  March,  1882.  The  situation 
seemed  suited  to  him,  and  he  always  remained 
a  true  poet  and  devoted  to  the  muses : 

Integer  vitas  scelerisque  purus. 

He  did  not  believe  in  a  luxurious  life  except 
so  far  as  luxury  added  to  refinement,  and  every 
thing  in  the  way  of  fashionable  show  was  very 
distasteful  to  him.  His  brother  Samuel  once 
said,  "I  cannot  imagine  anything  more  dis 
agreeable  than  to  ride  in  a  public  procession ; ' ' 
and  the  two  men  were  more  alike  than  brothers 
often  are.  We  notice  in  the  poet's  diary  that 
he  abstains  from  going  to  a  certain  dinner  in 
Boston  for  fear  of  being  called  upon  to  make 
a  speech.  Craigie  House  gave  Longfellow  the 


LONGFELLOW  67 

opportunity  in  which  he  most  delighted, — of 
entertaining  his  friends  and  distinguished  for 
eign  guests  in  a  handsome  manner ;  but  conven 
tional  dinner  parties,  with  their  fourteen  plates 
half  surrounded  by  wine-glasses,  were  not  often 
seen  there.  He  much  preferred  a  smaller  num 
ber  of  guests  with  the  larger  freedom  of  dis 
course  which  accompanies  a  select  gathering. 
Many  such  occasions  are  referred  to  in  his 
diary, — as  if  he  did  not  wish  to  forget  them. 

He  was  the  finest  host  and  story-teller  in  the 
country.  His  genial  courtesy  was  simply 
another  expression  of  that  mental  grace  which 
made  his  reputation  as  a  poet,  and  his  manner 
of  reciting  an  incident,  otherwise  trivial,  would 
give  it  the  same  additional  quality  as  in  his 
verses  on  Springfield  Arsenal  and  the  crooked 
Songo  River,  which  without  Longfellow  would 
be  little  or  nothing.  Then  his  fund  of  informa 
tion  was  what  might  be  expected  from  a  man 
who  had  lived  in  all  the  countries  of  western 
Europe. 

He  had  humble  and  unfortunate  friends 
whom  he  seemed  to  think  as  much  of  as  though 
they  were  distinguished.  He  recognized  fine 
traits  of  character,  perhaps  real  greatness  of 
character,  in  out-of-the-way  places, — men  whose 
chief  happiness  was  their  acquaintance  with 
Longfellow.  It  was  something  much  better  than 
charity;  and  Professor  Child  spoke  of  it  on 


68  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  day  of  Emerson's  funeral  as  the  finest 
flower  in  the  poet's  wreath. 

Longfellow  was  one  of  the  kindest  friends 
that  the  Hungarian  exiles  found  when  they 
came  to  Boston  in  1852.  Longfellow  helped 
Kossuth,  subscribed  to  Kalapka's  riding-school, 
and  entertained  a  number  of  them  at  his  house. 
Afterwards,  when  one  of  the  exiles  set  up  a 
business  in  Hungarian  wines,  Longfellow  made 
a  large  purchase  of  him,  which  he  spoke  of 
twenty  years  later  with  much  satisfaction.  He 
liked  Tokay,  and  also  the  white  wine  of  Capri, 
which  he  regretted  could  not  be  obtained  in 
America. 

Those  who  supposed  that  Longfellow  was 
easily  imposed  upon  made  a  great  mistake.  He 
had  the  reputation  among  his  publishers  of 
understanding  business  affairs  better  than  any 
author  in  New  England ;  but  he  was  almost  too 
kind-hearted.  Somewhere  about  1859  a  pho 
tographer  made  an  excellent  picture  of  his 
daughters — indeed,  it  was  a  charming  group— 
and  the  man  begged  Mr.  Longfellow  for  permis 
sion  to  sell  copies  of  it  as  it  would  be  of  great 
advantage  to  him.  Longfellow  complied  and  the 
consequence  was  that  in  1860  one  could  hardly 
open  a  photograph  album  anywhere  without 
finding  Longfellow's  daughters  in  it.  Then  a 
vulgar  story  originated  that  the  youngest 
daughter  had  only  one  arm,  because  her  left 


LONGFELLOW  69 

arm  was  hidden  behind  her  sister.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  Longfellow  never  heard  of  this,  for 
if  he  did  it  must  have  caused  him  a  good  deal 
of  pain,  in  return  for  his  kindness ;  but  that  is 
what  one  gets.  Fortunately  the  photographs 
have  long  since  faded  out. 

Much  in  the  same  line  was  his  interest  in  the 
children  of  the  poor.  A  ragged  urchin  seemed 
to  attract  him  much  more  than  one  that  was 
nicely  dressed.  Perhaps  they  seemed  more 
poetic  to  him,  and  he  could  see  more  deeply  into 
the  joys  and  sorrows  of  their  lives. 

Where  the  Episcopal  Theological  School  now 
stands  on  Brattle  Street  there  was  formerly  a 
sort  of  tenement-house;  and  one  day,  as  we 
were  taking  a  stroll  before  dinner,  we  noticed 
three  small  boys  with  dirty  faces  standing  at 
the  corner  of  the  building ;  and  just  then  one  of 
them  cried  out:  "Oh,  see;  here  he  comes!" 
And  immediately  Longfellow  appeared  leaving 
the  gate  of  Craigie  House.  "We  passed  him  be 
fore  he  reached  the  children,  but  on  looking  back 
we  saw  that  he  had  stopped  to  speak  with  them. 
They  evidently  knew  him  very  well. 

It  is  remarkable  how  the  impression  should 
have  been  circulated  that  Longfellow  was  not 
much  of  a  pedestrian.  On  the  contrary,  there 
was  no  one  who  was  seen  more  frequently  on 
the  streets  of  Cambridge.  He  walked  with  a 
springy  step  and  a  very  slight  swing  of  the 


70  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

shoulders,  which  showed  that  he  enjoyed  it.  He 
may  not  have  walked  such  long  distances  as 
Hawthorne,  or  so  rapidly  as  Dickens,  but  he 
was  a  good  walker. 

His  sister,  Mrs.  G-reenleaf,  built  a  memorial 
chapel  in  North  Cambridge  for  the  Episcopal 
society  there,  and  from  this  Longfellow  formed 
the  habit  of  walking  in  that  direction  by  way 
of  the  Botanic  Garden.  Somewhere  in  the  cross 
streets  he  became  acquainted  with  two  children, 
the  son  and  daughter  of  a  small  shop-keeper. 
They,  of  course,  told  their  mother  about  their 
white-haired  acquaintance,  and  with  the  fate  of 
Charlie  Boss  before  her  eyes,  their  mother 
warned  them  to  keep  out  of  his  way.  He 
might  be  a  tramp,  and  tramps  were  dangerous ! 

However,  it  was  not  long  before  the  children 
met  their  white-haired  friend  again,  and  the 
boy  asked  him:  "Are  you  a  tramp?  Mother 
thinks  you're  a  tramp,  and  she  wants  to  know 
what  your  name  is. ' '  It  may  be  presumed  that 
Mr.  Longfellow  laughed  heartily  at  this  mis 
conception,  but  he  said:  "I  think  I  may  call 
myself  a  tramp.  I  tramp  a  good  deal ;  but  you 
may  tell  your  mother  that  my  name  is  Henry 
W.  Longfellow. ' '  He  afterwards  called  on  the 
mother  in  order  to  explain  himself,  and  to  con 
gratulate  her  on  having  such  fine  children. 

When  the  Saturday  Club,  popularly  known 
as  the  Atlantic  Club,  was  organized,  one  of  the 


LONGFELLOW  71 

first  subjects  of  discussion  that  came  up  was 
the  question  of  autographs.  Emerson  said  that 
was  the  way  in  which  he  obtained  his  postage 
stamps ;  but  Longfellow  confessed  that  he  had 
given  away  a  large  number  of  them.  And  so  it 
continued  to  the  end.  "Why  should  I  not  do 
it, ' '  he  would  say,  "if  it  gives  them  pleasure  1 ' ' 
Emerson  looked  on  such  matters  from  the 
stoical  point  of  view  as  an  encouragement  to 
vanity ;  but  he  would  have  been  more  politic  to 
have  gratified  his  curious,  or  sentimental  ad 
mirers;  for  every  autograph  he  gave  would 
have  made  a  purchaser  for  his  publishers. 

Harmony  did  not  always  prevail  in  the  Sat 
urday  Club,  for  politics  was  the  all-embracing 
subject  in  those  days  and  its  members  repre 
sented  every  shade  of  political  opinion.  Emer 
son,  Longfellow,  and  Lowell  were  strongly 
anti-slavery,  but  they  differed  in  regard  to 
methods.  Lowell  was  what  was  then  called  a 
Seward  man,  and  differed  with  Emerson  in  re 
gard  to  John  Brown,  and  with  Longfellow  in 
regard  to  Sumner.  Holmes  was  still  more 
conservative;  and  Agassiz  was  a  McClellan 
Democrat.  William  Hunt,  the  painter,  believed 
that  the  war  was  caused  by  the  ambition  of  the 
leading  politicians  in  the  North  and  South, 
Longfellow  had  the  advantage  of  more  direct 
information  than  the  others,  and  enjoyed  the 
continued  successes  of  the  Eepublican  party. 


72  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

In  the  spring  of  1866  a  number  of  Southern 
ers  came  to  Boston  to  borrow  funds  in  order  to 
rehabilitate  their  plantations,  and  were  intro 
duced  at  the  Union  League  Club.  Finding 
themselves  there  in  a  congenial  element  they 
made  speeches  strongly  tinged  with  secession 
doctrines.  Sumner,  of  course,  could  not  let  this 
pass  without  making  some  protest  against  it, 
and  for  this  he  was  hissed.  The  incident  was 
everywhere  talked  of,  and  came  under  discus 
sion  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Saturday  Club. 
Otto  Dresel,  a  German  pianist,  who  had  small 
reason  for  being  there,  said,  "It  was  not  Mr. 
Sumner 's  politics  but  his  bad  manners  that 
were  hissed."  Longfellow  set  his  glass  down 
with  emphasis,  and  replied:  "If  good  manners 
could  not  say  it,  thank  heaven  bad  manners 
did;"  and  Lowell  supported  this  with  some 
pretty  severe  criticism  of  the  Union  League 
Club.  In  justice  to  the  Union  League  Club, 
however,  it  ought  to  be  said  that  there  was 
applause  as  well  as  hisses  for  Sumner. 

Longfellow  had  a  leonine  face,  but  it  was  that 
of  a  very  mild  lion ;  one  that  had  never  learned 
the  use  of  teeth  and  claws.  Yet  those  who 
knew  him  felt  that  he  could  roar  on  occasion,  if 
occasion  required  it.  Once  at  Longfellow's  own 
table  the  conversation  chanced  upon  Goethe, 
and  a  gentleman  present  remarked  that  Goethe 
was  in  the  habit  of  drinking  three  bottles  of 


LONGFELLOW  73 

hock  a  day.  "Who  said  he  did?'7  inquired  the 
poet.  "It  is  in  Lewes 's  biography,"  said  the 
gentleman.  "  I  do  not  believe  it, ' '  replied  Long 
fellow,  " unless, "  he  added  with  a  laugh,  "they 
were  very  small  bottles."  A  few  days  after 
wards  Prof.  William  James  remarked  in  regard 
to  this  incident  that  the  story  was  quite  in 
credible. 

In  his  youth  Longfellow  seems  to  have  taken 
to  guns  and  fishing-rods  more  regularly  than 
some  boys  do,  but  pity  for  his  small  victims 
soon  induced  him  to  relinquish  the  sport.  His 
eldest  son,  Charles,  also  took  to  guns  very  natu 
rally,  and  in  spite  of  a  severe  wound  which  he 
received  from  the  explosion  of  a  badly  loaded 
piece,  he  finally  became  one  of  the  most  expert 
pigeon-shooters  in  the  State.  At  the  interces 
sion  of  his  father,  who  considered  the  game  too 
cruel,  he  afterwards  relinquished  this  for  tar 
get-shooting,  in  which  he  succeeded  equally 
well.  I  was  talking  one  day  with  him  on  this 
subject  and  remarked  that  I  had  recently  shot 
two  crows  with  my  rifle.  "What  did  you  do  it 
for!"  interposed  his  father,  in  a  deprecatory 
tone.  So  I  explained  to  him  that  crows  were 
outside  of  the  pale  of  the  law;  that  they  not 
only  were  a  pest  to  the  farmers  but  destroyed 
the  eggs  and  young  of  singing  birds, — in  fact, 
they  were  bold,  black  robbers,  whose  livery 
betokened  their  evil  deeds.  This  evidently  in- 


74  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

terested  him,  and  he  finally  said  with  a  laugh: 
1 1  If  that  is  the  case,  we  will  give  you  and  Charlie 
a  commission  to  exterminate  them." 

There  was  a  story  that  when  young  Nicholas 
Longworth  came  to  Harvard  College  in  the 
autumn  of  1862  and  called  on  Mr.  Longfellow, 
who  had  been  entertained  at  his  father's  house 
in  Cincinnati,  the  poet  said  to  him :  "It  is  worth 
that  makes  the  man;  the  want  of  it  the  fellow" 
— a  compliment  that  almost  dumfounded  his 
young  acquaintance.  It  is  certain  that  Long 
fellow  addressed  a  poem  to  Mrs.  Longworth 
which  will  be  found  in  the  collection  of  his 
minor  poems,  and  in  which  he  speaks  of  her 
as — 

"  The  Queen  of  the  West  in  her  garden  dressed, 
By  the  banks  of  the  beautiful  river." 

In  the  midst  of  this  unrivalled  prosperity, 
this  distinction  of  genius,  and  public  and"  pri 
vate  honor,  on  the  ninth  of  July,  1861,  there 
came  one  of  the  most  harrowing  tragedies  that 
has  ever  befallen  a  man's  domestic  life.  Long 
fellow  was  widowed  for  the  second  time,  and 
five  children  were  left  without  a  mother.  It 
iemed  as  if  Providence  had  set  a  limit  beyond 
which  human  happiness  could  not  pass.  It  was 
after  this  calamity  that  Longfellow  undertook 
his  metrical  translation  of  Dante's  "Divina 
Commedia, ' '  a  much  more  difficult  and  laborious 


LONGFELLOW  75 

work  than   writing   original  poetry.     As   hi 
brother  said,  "He  required  an  absorbing  OQGIJL- 
pation  to  prevent  him  from  thinking  of  t 
past." 

No  wonder  that  in  later  years  he  said,  in  his 
exquisite  verses  on  the  Mountain  of  the  Holy 
Cross  in  Colorado,  these  pathetic  words,  "On 
my  heart  also  there  is  a  cross  of  snow." 

In  Longfellow's  diary  we  meet  with  the 
names  of  many  books  that  he  read,  and  these 
as  well  as  the  pertinent  comments  on  them  tell 
much  more  of  his  intellectual  life  than  we  derive 
from  his  letters.  "Adam  Bede,"  which  took 
the  world  by  storm,  did  not  make  so  much  of  an 
impression  on  him  as  Hawthorne's  "Marble 
Faun,"  which  he  read  through  in  a  day  and 
calls  a  wonderful  book.  Of  "Adam  Bede"  he 
says:  "It  is  too  feminine  for  a  man;  too  mas 
culine  for  a  woman."  He  says  of  Dickens, 
after  reading  "Barnaby  Budge":  "He  is 
always  prodigal  and  ample,  but  what  a  set  of 
vagabonds  he  contrives  to  introduce  us  to!" 
"Barnaby  Budge"  is  certainly  the  most  bohe- 
mian  and  esoteric  of  Dickens 's  novels.  He 
liked  much  better  Miss  Muloch's  "John  Hali 
fax," — a  popular  book  in  its  time,  but  not  read 
very  much  since.  He  calls  Charles  Beade  a 
clever  and  amusing  writer.  We  find  nothing 
concerning  Disraeli,  Trollope,  or  Wilkie  Col 
lins.  Neither  do  we  hear  of  critical  and  his- 


76  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

torical  writers  like  Buskin,  Matthew  Arnold, 
Carlyle,  and  Froude.  He  went,  however,  to  call 
on  Carlyle  in  England,  and  was  greatly  im 
pressed  by  his  conversation.  The  scope  of 
Longfellow's  reading  does  not  compare  with 
that  of  Emerson  or  Marian  Evans;  but  the 
doctors  say  that  "  every  man  of  forty  knows 
the  food  that  is  good  for  him, ' '  and  this  is  true 
mentally  as  well  as  physically. 

He  refers  more  frequently  to  Tennyson  than 
to  any  other  writer,  and  always  in  a  generous, 
cordial  manner.  Of  the  " Idyls  of  the  King" 
he  says  that  the  first  and  third  Idyls  could  only 
have  come  from  a  great  poet,  but  that  the  sec 
ond  and  fourth  are  not  quite  equal  to  the  others. 

Once,  at  his  sister's  house,  he  held  out  a  book 
in  his  hand  and  said:  "Here  is  some  of  the 
finest  dramatic  poetry  that  I  have  ever  read." 
It  was  Tennyson's  "Queen  Mary;"  but  there 
were  many  who  would  not  have  agreed  with  his 
estimate  of  it.  Kev.  Samuel  Longfellow  con 
sidered  the  statement  very  doubtful. 

In  the  summer  of  1868  Longfellow  went  to 
Europe  with  his  family  to  see  what  Henry 
James  calls  "the  best  of  it."  Eev.  Samuel 
Longfellow  and  T.  Gr.  Appleton  accompanied 
the  party,  which,  with  the  addition  of  Ernest 
Longfellow's  beautiful  bride,  made  a  strong 
impression  wherever  they  were  seen.  In  fact 
their  tour  was  like  a  triumphal  procession. 


LONGFELLOW  77 

Lonrfellow  was  everywhere  treated  with  the 
distinction  of  a  famous  poet;  and  his  fine  ap 
pearance  and  dignified  bearing  increased  the 
reputation  which  had  already  preceded  him. 
His  meeting  with  Tennyson  was  considered  as 
important  as  the  visit  of  the  King  of  Prussia 
to  Napoleon  III.,  and  much  less  dangerous  to 
the  peace  of  Europe.  It  was  talked  of  from 
Edinburgh  to  Eome. 

Longfellow,  however,  hated  lionizing  in  all 
its  forms,  and  he  avoided  ceremonious  recep 
tions  as  much  as  possible.  He  enjoyed  the 
entertainment  of  meeting  distinguished  people, 
but  he  evidently  preferred  to  meet  them  in  an 
unconventional  manner,  and  to  have  them  as 
much  to  himself  as  possible.  Princes  and 
savants  called  on  him,  but  he  declined  every 
invitation  that  might  tend  to  give  him  publicity. 

His  facility  in  the  different  languages  was 
much  marvelled  at.  While  he  was  in  Florence 
a  delegation  from  the  mountain  towns  of  Tus 
cany  waited  upon  him  and  he  conversed  with 
them  in  their  own  dialect,  greatly  to  their  sur 
prise  and  satisfaction. 

From  a  number  of  incidents  in  this  journey, 
related  by  Eev.  Samuel  Longfellow,  the  follow 
ing  has  a  permanent  interest : 

When  the  party  came  to  Verona  in  May, 
1869,  they  found  Euskin  elevated  on  a  ladder, 
from  which  he  was  examining  the  sculpture  on 


78  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

a  monument.  As  soon  as  he  heard  that  the 
Longfellow  party  was  below,  he  came  down 
and  greeted  them  very  cordially.  He  was 
glad  that  they  had  stopped  at  Verona,  which 
was  so  interesting  and  so  often  overlooked; 
he  wanted  them  to  observe  the  sculptures  on 
the  monument, — the  softly-flowing  draperies 
which  seemed  more  as  if  they  had  been 
moulded  with  hands  than  cut  with  a  chisel. 
He  then  spoke  in  grievous  terms  of  the  recent 
devastation  by  the  floods  in  Switzerland,  which 
had  also  caused  much  damage  in  the  plains  of 
Lombardy.  He  thought  that  reservoirs  ought 
to  be  constructed  on  the  sides  of  the  mountains, 
which  would  stay  the  force  of  the  torrents,  and 
hold  the  water  until  it  could  be  made  useful. 
He  wished  that  the  Alpine  Club  would  take  an 
interest  in  the  matter.  After  enjoying  so  much 
in  Switzerland  it  would  be  only  fair  for  them 
to  do  something  for  the  benefit  of  the  country. 
Mr.  Appleton  then  said:  "That  is  a  work  for 
government  to  do;'7  to  which  Euskin  replied: 
' '  Governments  do  nothing  but  fill  their  pockets, 
and  issue  this,  "•—  taking  out  a  handful  of  Ital 
ian  paper  currency,  which  was  then  much  below 
par. 

Everyone  has  his  or  her  favorite  poet  or 
poets,  and  it  is  a  common  practice  with  young 
critics  to  disparage  one  in  order  to  elevate 


LONGFELLOW  79 

another.  Longfellow  was  the  most  popular 
American  poet  of  his  time,  but  there  were  others 
besides  Edgar  A.  Poe  who  pretended  to  disdain 
him.  I  have  met  more  such  critics  in  Cam 
bridge  than  in  England,  Germany,  or  Italy; 
and  the  reason  was  chiefly  a  political  one.  At 
a  distance  Longfellow's  politics  attracted  little 
attention,  but  in  Cambridge  they  could  not  help 
being  felt.  In  1862  a  strong  movement  ema 
nated  from  the  Harvard  Law-School  to  defeat 
Sumner  and  Andrew,  and  the  lines  became 
drawn  pretty  sharply.  As  it  happened,  the 
prominent  conservatives  with  one  or  two  excep 
tions  all  lived  to  the  east  and  north  of  the  col 
lege  grounds,  while  Longfellow,  Lowell,  Doctor 
Francis  (who  baptized  Longfellow's  children), 
Prof.  Asa  Gray,  and  other  liberals  lived  at  the 
west  end ;  and  the  local  division  made  the  con 
test  more  acrimonious.  The  conservatives 
afterwards  felt  the  bitterness  of  defeat,  and  it 
was  many  years  before  they  recovered  from 
this.  A  resident  graduate  of  Harvard,  who  was 
accustomed  to  converse  on  such  subjects  as  the 
metaphysics  of  Hamilton's  quaternions,  once 
said  that  Longfellow  was  the  paragon  of  school 
girls,  because  he  wrote  what  they  would  like  to 
so  much  better  than  they  could.  This  was  con 
temptible  enough;  but  how  can  one  expect  a 
man  who  discourses  on  the  metaphysics  of 
Hamilton's  quaternions  to  appreciate  Long- 


80  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

fellow's  art,  or  any  art  pure  and  simple. 
' '  Evangeline, ' '  which  is  perhaps  the  finest  of 
Longfellow's  poems,  is  not  a  favorite  with 
youthful  readers. 

He  was  greater  as  a  man,  perhaps,  than  as 
a  poet.  Future  ages  will  have  to  determine 
this ;  but  he  was  certainly  one  of  the  best  poets 
0f  his  time.  Professor  Hedge,  one  of  our  fore- 
inost  literary  critics,  spoke  of  him  as  the  one 
American  poet  whose  verses  sing  themselves; 
and  with  the  exception  of  Bryant's  "Bobert  of 
Lincoln,"  and  Poe's  "Baven,"  and  a  few  other 
pieces,  this  may  be  taken  as  a  judicious  state 
ment. 

Longfellow's  unconsciousness  is  charming, 
even  when  it  seems  childlike.  As  a  master 
of  verse  he  has  no  English  rival  since  Spenser. 
The  trochaic  meter  in  which  "Hiawatha"  is 
written  would  seem  to  have  been  his  own  inven 
tion  ;  *  and  is  a  very  agreeable  change  from 
the  perpetual  iambics  of  Byron  and  Words 
worth.  "Evangeline"  is  perhaps  the  most  suc 
cessful  instance  of  Greek  and  Latin  hexameter 
being  grafted  on  to  an  English  stem.  Matthew 
Arnold  considered  it  too  dactylic,  but  the  light 
ness  of  its  movement  personifies  the  grace  of 
the  heroine  herself.  Lines  like  Virgil 's 

*  At  least  I  can  remember  no  other  long  poem  composed 
in  it. 


LONGFELLOW  81 

"  Illi  inter  sese  multa  vi  braehia  tollunt 
In  numerum,  versantque  tenaci  forcipe  massam," 

would  not  have  been  suited  to  the  subject. 

It  has  often  been  said  that ' l  Hiawatha ' '  does 
not  represent  the  red  man  as  he  really  is,  and 
this  is  true.  Neither  does  Tennyson  represent 
the  knights  of  King  Arthur's  court  as  they 
were  in  the  sixth  century  A.D.  They  are  more 
like  modern  English  gentlemen,  and  when  we 
read  the  German  Neibelungen  we  recognize  this 
difference.  Virgil's  ^Eneid  does  not  belong  to 
the  period  of  the  Trojan  war,  but  this  does  not 
prevent  the  ^Eneid  from  being  very  fine  poetry. 
The  American  Indian  is  not  without  his  poetic 
side,  as  is  proved  by  the  squaw  who  knelt  down 
on  a  flowery  Brussels  carpet,  and  smoothing  it 
with  her  hands,  said :  "Hahnsome!  hahnsome! 
heaven  no  hahnsomer!"  There  is  true  poetry 
in  this;  and  so  there  is  in  the  Indian  cradle- 
song: 

"  The  poor  little  bee  that  lives  in  the  tree; 

The  poor  little  bee  that  lives  in  the  tree; 

Has  but  one  arrow  in  his  quiver." 

Either  of  these  incidents  is  sufficient  to  tes 
tify  to  Longfellow's  "Hiawatha." 

The  best  poetry  is  that  which  forces  itself 
upon  our  memories,  so  that  it  becomes  part  of 
our  life  without  the  least  effort  of  recollection. 
Such  are  Emerson's  "Problem,"  Whittier's 

6 


82  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

"Barbara  Frietchie,"  and  Longfellow's  "Santa 
Filomena. ' ' 

"  Whene'er  a  noble  deed  is  wrought, 
Whene'er  is  spoken  a  noble  thought, 
Our  hearts  in  glad  surprise 
To  higher  levels  rise." 

Those  are  fortunate  in  this  life  who  feel  the 
glad  surprise  of  Longfellow. 

' '  Hiawatha ' '  is  equally  universal  in  its  appli 
cation  to  modern  life.  The  questions  of  the 
Indian  boy  and  the  replies  of  his  nurse,  the 
good  Nikomis,  are  not  confined  to  the  life  of 
the  aborigines.  Every  spirited  boy  is  a  Hia 
watha,  and  in  one  form  or  another  goes  through 
the  same  experiences  that  Longfellow  has  rep 
resented  with  such  consummate  art  in  his  Amer 
ican  epic-idyl. 


LOWELL 

THE  Lowell  family  of  Boston  crossed  over 
from  England  towards  the  middle  of  the  seven 
teenth  century.  One  of  their  number  after 
wards  founded  the  city  of  Lowell,  by  establish 
ing  manufactures  on  the  Merrimac  River,  late 
in  the  eighteenth  century;  and  in  more  recent 
times  two  members  of  the  family  have  held  the 
position  of  judge  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Mas 
sachusetts.  They  are  a  family  of  refined  intel 
lectual  tastes,  as  well  as  of  good  business  and 
professional  ability,  but  of  a  retiring  disposi 
tion  and  not  often  conspicuous  in  public  life,— 
a  family  of  general  good  qualities,  nicely  bal 
anced  between  liberal  and  conservative,  and 
with  a  poetic  vein  running  through  it  for  the 
past  hundred  years  or  more.  In  the  Class  of 
1867  there  was  an  Edward  J.  Lowell  who  was 
chosen  class  odist,  and  who  wrote  poetry  nearly, 
if  not  quite,  as  good  as  that  of  his  distinguished 
relative  at  the  same  period  of  life. 

James  Russell  Lowell  was  born  at  Elmwood, 
as  it  is  now  called,  on  Washington's  birthday 
in  1819, — as  if  to  make  a  good  staunch  patriot 
of  him ;  and,  what  is  even  more  exceptional  in 
American  life,  he  lived  and  died  in  the  same 
house  in  which  he  was  born.  It  was  not  such  a 
house  as  the  Craigie  mansion,  but  still  spacious 

83 


84  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

and  dignified,  and  denoted  very  fair  prosperity 
for  those  times. 

Elmwood  itself  extends  for  some  thirty  rods 
on  Brattle  Street,  but  the  entrance  to  the  house 
is  on  a  cross-road  which  runs  down  to  the 
marshes.  Beyond  Elmwood  there  is  a  stone 
cutter's  establishment,  and  next  to  that  Mount 
Auburn  Cemetery,  which,  however,  was  a  fine 
piece  of  woodland  in  Lowell's  youth,  called 
Sweet  Auburn  by  the  Harvard  students,  much 
frequented  by  love-sick  swains  and  strolling 
parties  of  youths  and  maidens. 

The  Lowell  residence  was  well  into  the  coun 
try  at  that  time.  There  were  few  houses  near 
it,  and  Boston  could  only  be  reached  by  a  long 
detour  in  a  stage ;  so  that  an  expedition  to  the 
city  exhausted  the  better  part  of  a  day.  It  was 
practically  further  in  the  country  than  Concord 
is  at  present;  and  it  was  here  that  Lowell  en 
joyed  that  repose  of  mind  which  is  essential  to 
vigorous  mental  development,  and  could  find 
such  interests  in  external  nature  as  the  poet 
requires  for  the  embellishment  of  his  verse. 

He  went  to  college  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  two 
years  older  than  Edward  Everett,  but  suffi 
ciently  young  to  prove  himself  a  precocious  stu 
dent.  Cambridge  boys  of  good  families  have 
always  been  noted  at  Harvard  for  their  gen 
tlemanly  deportment.  Besides  this,  Lowell  had 
an  immense  fund  of  wit  and  good  spirits,  and 


LOWELL  85 

the  two  together  served  to  make  him  very  popu 
lar — perhaps  too  much  so  for  his  immediate 
good.  His  father  had  great  hopes  of  his  prom 
ising  son, — that  he  would  prove  a  fine  scholar 
and  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  commence 
ment  exercises.  He  even  offered  the  boy  a  re 
ward  of  two  hundred  dollars  in  case  this  should 
happen;  but  the  attractions  of  student  and 
social  life  proved  too  strong  for  James.  He  was 
quick  at  languages,  but  slow  in  mathematics, 
and  as  for  Butler's  analogy  he  cannot  be  blamed 
for  the  aversion  with  which  he  regarded  it.  He 
writes  a  letter  in  which  he  confesses  to  peeping 
over  the  professor's  shoulder  to  see  what 
marks  have  been  given  for  his  recitations,  so 
that  his  father 's  exhortation  would  seem  at  one 
time  to  have  been  seriously  felt  by  him ;  but  the 
effort  did  not  last  long,  and  we  find  him  repeat 
edly  reprimanded  for  neglect  of  college  duties. 
He  did  not  live  the  life  of  a  roaring  blade, 
but  more  like  the  humming-bird  that  darts 
from  one  plant  to  another,  and  gathers  sweet 
ness  from  every  flower  in  the  garden.  Finally 
he  was  rusticated,  just  after  he  had  been  elected 
poet  of  his  class,  with  directions  not  to  return 
until  commencement.  We  recognize  the  Puri 
tanic  severity  of  President  Quincy  in  this  sen 
tence,  which  robbed  young  Lowell  of  the  pleas- 
antest  term  of  college  life,  as  well  as  the  honor 
of  appearing  on  the  stage  on  Class  Day.  That 


86  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

his  poem  should  have  been  read  by  another  to 
the  assembled  families  of  his  classmates, 
served  to  make  his  absence  more  conspicuous. 
Nor  can  we  discover  any  sufficient  reason  for 
such  hard  statement. 

At  the  same  age  that  Longfellow  was  writing 
for  the  United  States  Literary  Gazette,  Lowell 
was  scribbling  verses  for  an  undergraduates' 
periodical  called  Harvardiana.  They  were  not 
very  serious  productions,  and  might  all  be  in 
cluded  under  the  head  of  bric-a-brac ;  but  there 
was  a-plenty  of  them.  While  Longfellow's  verse 
at  nineteen  was  remarkable  for  its  perfection 
of  form,  Lowell's  suffered  chiefly  from  a  lack 
of  this.  He  had  an  idea  that  poetry  ought  to  be 
an  inspiration  of  the  moment;  a  good  founda 
tion  to  begin  with,  but  which  he  found  after 
wards  it  was  necessary  to  modify. 

In  the  preface  to  one  of  his  Biglow  Papers  he 
speaks  of  his  life  in  Concord  as  being 

"  As  lazy  as  the  bream 
Which  only  thinks  to  head  up  stream." 

The  men  whom  he  chiefly  associated  with  there 
were  named  Barziliai  and  Ebenezer,  and  the 
hoar  frost  of  the  Concord  meadows  would  seem 
to  have  had  a  chilling  effect  on  Lowell's  natu 
rally  tolerant  and  amiable  disposition.  He  was 
not  attracted  by  Emerson  at  this  time,  but,  on 
the  contrary,  would  seem  to  have  felt  an  aver- 


LOWELL  87 

sion  to  him.  The  following  lines  in  his  class 
poem  could  not  have  referred  to  anyone  else : 

"  Woe  for  Religion,  too,  when  men  who  claim 
To  place  a  '  Reverend'  before  their  name 
Ascend  the  Lord's  own  holy  place  to  preach 
In  strains  that  Kneeland  had  been  proud  to  reach; 
And  which,  if  measured  by  Judge  Thatcher's  scale, 
Had  doomed  their  author  to  the  county  jail ! 
Alas  that  Christian  ministers  should  dare 
To  preach  the  views  of  Gibbon  and  Voltaire!" 

To  confound  the  strong  spiritual  assertion  of 
Emerson  with  the  purely  negative  attitude  of 
the  French  satirist  was  a  common  mistake  in 
those  days,  and  the  Lowell  of  1838  needs  small 
excuse  for  it.  He  must  have  been  in  a  biting 
humor  at  this  time,  for  there  is  a  cut  all  round 
in  his  class  poem,  although  it  is  the  most  vigor 
ous  and  highly-finished  production  of  his  aca 
demic  years. 

After  college  came  the  law,  in  which  he  suc 
ceeded  as  well  as  youthful  attorneys  commonly 
do;  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  entered 
into  the  holy  bonds  of  matrimony. 

The  union  of  James  Eussell  Lowell  to  Maria 
White,  of  Watertown,  was  the  most  poetic  mar 
riage  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  can  only 
be  compared  to  that  of  Elizabeth  Barrett  and 
Eobert  Browning.  Miss  White  was  herself  a 
poetess,  and  full  of  poetical  impulse  to  the 
brim.  Maria  would  seem  to  have  been  born  in 


88  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  White  family  as  Albinos  appear  in  Africa, 
— for  the  sake  of  contrast.  She  shone  like  a 
single  star  in  a  cloudy  sky, — a  pale,  slender, 
graceful  girl,  with  eyes,  to  use  Herrick's  expres 
sion,  "like  a  crystal  glasse. "  A  child  was  born 
where  she  did  not  belong,  and  Lowell  was  the 
chivalrous  knight  who  rescued  her. 

It  must  have  been  Maria  White  who  made  an 
Emersonian  of  him.  Margaret  Fuller  had 
stirred  up  the  intellectual  life  of  New  England 
women  to  a  degree  never  known  before  or  since, 
and  Miss  White  was  one  of  those  who  came 
within  the  scope  of  her  influence.*  She  studied 
German,  and  translated  poems  from  Uhland, 
who  might  be  called  the  German  Longfellow. 
Certain  it  is  that  from  the  time  of  their  mar 
riage  his  opinions  not  only  changed  from  what 
they  had  been  previously,  but  his  ideas  of 
poetry,  philosophy,  and  religion  became  more 
consistent  and  clearly  defined.  The  path  that 
she  pointed  out  to  him,  or  perhaps  which  they 
discovered  together,  was  the  one  that  he  fol 
lowed  all  through  life;  so  that  in  one  of  his 
later  poems,  he  said,  half  seriously,  that  he  was 
ready  to  adopt  Emerson's  creed  if  anyone  could 
tell  him  just  what  it  was. 

The  life  they  lived  together  was  a  poem  in 
itself,  and  reminds  one  of  Goethe's  saying,  that 

*  Lowell  himself  speaks  of  her  as  being  "  considered 
transcendental." 


LOWELL  89 

"he  who  is  sufficiently  provided  for  within  has 
need  of  little  from  without."  They  were  poor 
in  worldly  goods,  but  rich  in  affection,  in  fine 
thoughts,  and  courageous  endeavor.  It  is  said 
that  when  they  were  married  Lowell  had  but 
five  hundred  dollars  of  his  own.  They  went  to 
New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and  soon  discover 
ing  that  they  had  spent  more  than  half  of  it, 
they  concluded  to  return  home. 

The  next  ten  years  of  Lowell's  life  might  be 
called  the  making  of  the  man.  He  worked  hard 
and  lived  economically ;  earning  what  he  could 
by  the  law,  and  what  he  could  not  by  magazine 
writing,  which  paid  poorly  enough.  Publishers 
had  not  then  discovered  that  what  the  general 
public  desires  is  not  literature,  but  information 
on  current  topics,  and  this  is  the  last  thing 
which  the  true  man  of  letters  is  able  to  provide. 
A  magazine  article,  or  a  campaign  biography 
of  General  Grant,  could  be  written  in  a  few 
weeks,  but  a  solid  historical  biography  of  him, 
with  a  critical  examination  of  his  campaigns, 
has  not  yet  been  written,  and  perhaps  never 
will  be.  A  literary  venture  of  Lowell  and  his 
friends  in  1843,  to  found  a  first-rate  literary 
magazine,  proved  a  failure;  and  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  he  lost  money  by  it.* 

However  the  world  might  use  him  he  was 

*  See  Scudder's  Life  of  Lowell,  iii.  109. 


90  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

sure  of  comfort  and  happiness  at  his  own  fire 
side,  where  he  read  Shelley,  and  Keats,  and 
Lessing,  while  Mrs.  Lowell  studied  upon  her 
German  translations.  The  sympathy  of  a  true- 
hearted  woman  is  always  valuable,  even  when 
she  does  not  quite  understand  the  grievance  in 
question,  but  the  sympathy  that  Maria  Lowell 
could  give  her  husband  was  of  a  rare  sort.  She 
could  sympathize  with  him  wholly  in  heart  and 
intellect.  She  encouraged  him  to  fresh  en 
deavors  and  continual  improvement.  Thus  he 
went  on  year  by  year  broadening  his  mind, 
strengthening  his  faculties,  and  improving  his 
reputation.  The  days  of  frolicsome  gaiety 
were  over.  He  now  lived  in  a  more  serious 
vein,  and  felt  a  deeper,  more  satisfying  happi 
ness.  It  was  much  more  the  ideal  life  of  a  poet 
than  that  of  Thoreau,  paddling  up  and  down 
Concord  Eiver  in  search  of  the  inspiration 
which  only  comes  when  we  do  not  think  of  it. 

It  may  be  suspected  that  he  read  more  litera 
ture  than  law  during  these  years,  and  we  notice 
that  he  did  not  go,  like  Emerson,  to  the  great 
fountain-heads  of  poetry, — to  Homer  or  Dante, 
Shakespeare  or  Goethe, — but  courted  the  muse 
rather  among  such  tributaries  as  Virgil,  Mo- 
liere,  Chaucer,  Keats,  and  Lessing.  It  may 
have  been  better  for  him  that  he  began  in  this 
manner ;  but  a  remark  that  Scudder  attributes 
to  him  in  regard  to  Lessing  gives  us  an  insight 


LOWELL  91 

into  the  deeper  mechanism  of  his  mind. 
"Shelley's  poetry, "  he  said,  "was  like  the  tran 
sient  radiance  of  St.  Elmo's  fire,  but  Lessing 
was  wholly  a  poet."  This  is  exactly  the  oppo 
site  of  the  view  he  held  during  his  college  life, 
for  Lessing  worked  in  a  methodical  and  pains 
taking  manner  and  finished  what  he  wrote  with 
the  greatest  care. 

More  than  this,  Lessing  was  as  Lowell  real 
ized  afterwards, — too  critical  and  polemical  to 
he  wholly  a  poet.  His  "Emilia  Galotti"  still 
holds  a  high  position  on  the  German  stage  and 
has  fine  poetic  qualities,  but  it  is  written  in 
prose.  His  "Nathan  the  Wise"  was  written  in 
verse,  but  did  not  prove  a  success  as  a  drama. 
In  one  he  attacked  the  tyranny  of  the  German 
petty  princes,  and  in  the  other  the  intolerance 
of  the  Established  Church.  We  may  assume 
that  is  the  reason  why  Lowell  admired  them; 
but  Lowell  was  also  too  critical  and  polemic  to 
be  wholly  a  poet, — except  on  certain  occasions. 
In  1847  he  published  the  "Fable  for  Critics," 
the  keenest  piece  of  poetical  satire  since 
Byron's  "English  Bards  and  Scotch  Review 
ers," — keen  and  even  saucy,  but  perfectly 
good-humored.  About  the  same  time  he  com 
menced  his  "Biglow  Papers,"  which  did  not 
wholly  cease  until  1866,  and  were  the  most  in 
cisive  and  aggressive  anti-slavery  literature  of 
that  period.  Soon  afterwards  he  wrote  "The 


92  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Vision  of  Sir  Launfal,"  which  has  become  the 
most  widely  known  of  all  his  poems,  and  which 
contains  passages  of  the  purest  a  priori  verse. 
Goethe,  who  exercised  so  powerful  an  influence 
on  Emerson,  does  not  appear  to  have  interested 
Lowell  at  all. 

The  most  plaintive  of  Beethoven  scherzos, — 
that  in  the  Moonlight  Sonata, — says  as  if  it 
were  spoken  in  words : 

"  Once  we  were  happy,  now  I  am  forlorn ; 
Fortune  has  darkened,  and  happiness  gone." 

Lowell's  poetic  marriage  did  not  last  quite  ten 
years.  Maria  White  was  always  frail  and  deli 
cate,  and  she  became  more  so  continually. 
Longfellow's  clear  foresight  noticed  the  dan 
ger  she  was  in  years  before  her  death,  which 
took  place  in  the  autumn  of  1853.  She  left 
one  child,  Mabel  Lowell,  slender  and  pale  like 
herself,  and  with  poetical  lines  in  her  face,  too, 
but  fortunately  endowed  with  her  father 's  good 
constitution.  Only  ten  years!  But  such  ten 
years,  worth  ten  centuries  of  the  life  of  a  girl 
of  fashion,  who  thinks  she  is  happy  because 
she  has  everything  she  wants.  If  the  truth 
were  known  we  might  find  that  in  the  twi 
light  of  his  life  Lowell  thought  more  of  these 
ten  years  with  Maria  White  than  of  the  six 
years  when  he  was  Ambassador  to  England, — 
with  twenty-nine  dinner-parties  in  the  month 
of  June. 


LOWELL  93 

What  would  poets  do  without  war?  The 
Trojan  war,  or  some  similar  conflict,  served  as 
the  ground-work  of  Homer 's  mighty  epic; 
Virgil  followed  in  similar  lines;  Dante  would 
never  have  been  famous  but  for  the  Guelph  and 
Ghibeline  struggle.  Shakespeare's  plays  are 
full  of  war  and  fighting ;  and  the  wars  of  Napo 
leon  stimulated  Byron,  Schiller,  and  Goethe  to 
the  best  efforts  of  their  lives.  In  dealing  with 
men  like  Emerson,  Longfellow,  and  Lowell,  who 
were  the  intellectual  leaders  of  their  time,  it  is 
impossible  to  escape  their  influence  in  the  anti- 
slavery  movement,  and  its  influence  upon  them, 
unpopular  as  that  subject  is  at  present.  That 
was  the  heroic  age  of  American  history,  and 
the  truth  concerning  it  has  not  yet  been  written. 
It  was  as  heroic  to  the  South  as  to  the  North, 
for,  as  Sumner  said,  the  slaveholders  would 
never  have  made  their  desperate  attack  on  the 
Government  of  this  country  if  they  had  not  been 
themselves  the  slaves  of  their  own  social  or 
ganization. 

It  was  the  solution  of  a  great  historical  prob 
lem,  like  that  of  Constitutional  Government 
versus  the  Stuarts,  and  it  ought  to  be  treated 
from  a  national  and  not  a  sectional  stand-point. 

The  live  men  of  that  time  became  abolition 
ists  as  inevitably  as  their  forefathers  became 
supporters  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
If  Webster  and  Everett  had  been  born  twenty 


94  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

years  later,  they  must  needs  have  become  anti- 
slavery,  too.  Those  of  Lowell's  friends,  like 
George  S.  Hillard  and  George  B.  Loring,  who 
for  social  or  political  reasons  took  the  opposite 
side,  afterwards  found  themselves  left  in  the 
lurch  by  an  adverse  public  opinion. 

It  was  the  Mexican  war  that  first  aroused 
Lowell  to  the  seriousness  of  the  extension  of 
slavery,  and  it  was  meeting  a  recruiting  officer 
in  the  streets  of  Boston,  "covered  all  over  with 
brass  let  alone  that  which  nature  had  sot  on  his 
countenance,'7  which  inspired  his  writing  the 
first  of  the  "Biglow  Papers."  They  were 
hastily  and  carelessly  written,  and  Lowell  him 
self  held  them  in  slight,  estimation  as  literature ; 
but  they  became  immediately  popular,  as  no 
poetry  had  that  he  had  published  previously. 
Their  freshness  and  directness  appealed  to  the 
manliness  and  good  sense  of  the  average  New 
Englander,  and  the  whole  community  responded 
to  them  with  repeated  applause.  There  is,  after 
all,  much  poetry  in  the  Biglow  Papers,  the  more 
genuine  because  unintentional;  but  they  are 
full  of  the  keenest  wit  and  a  proverbial  philoso 
phy  which,  if  less  profound  than  Emerson's,  is 
more  capable  of  a  practical  application. 

The  vernacular  in  which  they  are  written 
must  have  been  learned  at  Concord, — perhaps 
on  the  front  stoop  of  the  Middlesex  Hotel, — 
while  Lowell  was  listening  to  the  pithy  conver- 


LOWELL  95 

sation  of  Yankee  farmers,  not  only  about  their 
crops  and  cattle,  but  also  discussing  church 
affairs  and  politics,  local  and  national.  It  was 
the  grandfathers  of  these  men  who  drove  the 
British  back  from  Concord  bridge,  and  it  was 
their  sons  who  fought  their  way  from  the  Eapi- 
dan  to  Eichmond.  With  the  help  of  country 
lawyers  they  sent  Sumner  and  Wilson  to  the 
Senate,  and  knew  what  they  were  about  when 
they  did  this.  For  wit,  humor,  and  repartee,— 
and,  it  may  be  added,  for  decent  conversation, 
— there  is  no  class  of  men  like  them.  Both 
Lowell  and  Emerson  have  testified  to  their 
intrinsic  worth. 

On  one  occasion  a  Concord  farmer  was 
driving  a  cow  past  Sanborn's  school-house, 
when  an  impudent  boy  called  out,  "The  calf 
always  follows  the  cow."  "Why  aren't  you 
behind  here,  then?"  retorted  the  man,  with  a 
look  that  went  home  like  the  stroke  of  a  cane. 
If  Lowell  had  been  present  he  would  have  been 
delighted. 

The  Yankee  dialect  which  he  makes  use  of  as 
a  vehicle  in  these  verses  is  not  always  as  clear- 
cut  as  it  might  be.  He  says,  for  instance, 

"Pleasure  doos  make  us  Yankee  kind  of  winch 
As  if  it  was  something  paid  for  by  the  inch." 

The  true  New  England  countryman  never  flat 
tens  a  vowel ;  if  he  changes  it  he  always  makes 


96  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

it  sharp.  He  would  be  more  likely  to  say: 
"Pleasure  does  make  us  Yankee  kind  er  winch, 
as  if  'twas  suthin'  paid  for  by  the  inch." 
There  are  other  instances  of  similar  sort;  but, 
nevertheless,  if  the  primitive  Yankee  should 
become  extinct,  as  now  seems  very  probable, 
Lowell's  masterly  portrait  of  him  will  remain, 
and  future  generations  can  reconstruct  him 
from  it,  as  Agassiz  reconstructed  an  extinct 
species  of  mammal  from  fossil  bones. 

Lowell  did  not  join  the  Free-soilers,  who 
were  now  bearing  the  brunt  of  the  anti-slavery 
conflict,  but  attached  himself  to  the  more  aristo 
cratic  wing  of  the  old  abolitionists,  which  was 
led  by  Edmund  Quincy,  Maria  Chapman,  and 
L.  Maria  Child.  Lowell  was  far  from  being  a 
non-resistant.  In  fact,  he  might  be  called  a 
fighting-man,  although  he  disapproved  of 
duelling;  and  this  served  to  keep  him  at  a  dis 
tance  from  Garrison,  of  whom  he  wisely  re 
marked  that  "the  nearer  public  opinion 
approached  to  him  the  further  he  retreated  into 
the  isolation  of  his  own  private  opinions. ' '  He 
wrote  regularly  for  the  Anti-Slavery  Standard 
until  1851,  when  the  death  of  his  father-in-law 
supplied  the  long-desired  means  for  a  journey 
to  Italy, — more  desired  perhaps  for  his  wife's 
health  than  for  his  own  gratification.  It  may 
be  the  fault  of  his  biographers,  but  I  cannot 
discover  that  Lowell  took  any  share  in  the  oppo- 


LOWELL  97 

sition  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  bill,  or  in  the  elec 
tion  of  Sumner,  which  was  the  signal  event  that 
followed  it.  In  his  whole  life  Lowell  never 
made  the  acquaintance  of  a  practical  statesman, 
while  Whittier  was  in  constant  communication 
with  prominent  members  of  the  Free-soil  and 
Eepublican  parties.  Sumner  went  to  hear 
Lowell's  lecture  on  Milton,  and  praised  it  as  a 
work  of  genius. 

I  have  heard  the  "Vision  of  Sir  Launfal" 
spoken  of  more  frequently  than  any  other  of 
Lowell's  poems.  Some  of  the  descriptive  pass 
ages  in  it  would  seem  to  have  flowed  from  his 
pen  as  readily  as  ink  from  a  quill;  and  there 
are  others  which  appear  to  have  been  evolved 
with  much  thought  and  ingenuity.  One  cannot 
help  feeling  the  sudden  change  from  a  June 
morning  at  Elmwood  to  a  mediaeval  castle  in 
Europe  as  somewhat  abrupt ;  but  when  we  think 
of  it  subjectively  as  a  poetic  vision  which  came 
to  Lowell  himself  seated  on  his  own  door-step, 
this  disillusion  vanishes,  and  we  sympathize 
heartily  with  the  writer.  There  is  no  place  in 
the  world  where  June  seems  so  beautiful  as  in 
New  England,  on  account  of  the  dismal,  cut 
throat  weather  in  the  months  that  precede  it. 
Perhaps  it  is  so  in  reality;  for  what  nature 
makes  us  suffer  from  at  one  time  she  commonly 
atones  for  it  another. 

The  "Fable  for  Critics "  is  written  in  an 

7 


98  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

easy,  nonchalant  manner,  which  helps  to  miti 
gate  its  severity.  Thoreau  could  not  have  liked 
very  well  being  called  an  imitator  of  Emerson ; 
but  the  wit  of  it  is  inimitable.  "T.  never  pur 
loins  the  apples  from  Emerson's  trees;  it  is 
only  the  windfalls  that  he  carries  off  and  passes 
for  his  own  fruit. "  Emerson  remarked  on 
this,  that  Thoreau  was  sufficiently  original  in 
his  own  way ;  and  he  always  spoke  of  Lowell  in 
a  friendly  and  appreciative  manner.  The  whole 
poem  is  filled  with  such  homely  comparisons, 
which  hit  the  nail  exactly  on  the  head.  The 
most  subtle  piece  of  analysis,  however,  is  Low 
ell's  comparison  between  Emerson  and  Carlyle : 

"  There  are  persons,  mole-blind  to  the  soul's  make  and  style, 
Who  insist  on  a  likeness  'twixt  him  and  Carlyle; 
To  compare  him  with  Plato  would  be  vastly  fairer, 
Carlyle's  the  more  burly,  but  E.  is  the  rarer; 
He  sees  fewer  objects,  but  clearlier,  truelier, 
If  C.'s  as  original,  E.'s  more  peculiar; 
That  he's  more  of  a  man  you  might  say  of  the  one, 
Of  the  other  he's  more  of  an  Emerson ; 
C.'s  the  Titan,  as  shaggy  of  mind  as  of  limb, — 
E.  the  clear-eyed  Olympian,  rapid  and  slim; 
The  one's  two-thirds  Norseman,  the  other  half  Greek, 
Where  the  one's  most  abounding,  the  other's  to  seek." 

It  was  the  fashion  in  England  at  that  time  to 
disparage  Emerson  as  an  imitator  of  Carlyle; 
and  this  was  LowelPs  reply  to  it. 
He  told  Professor  Hedge  an  amusing  incident 


LOWELL  99 

that  happened  during  his  first  visit  to  Eome. 
Lowell  and  his  wife  took  lodgings  with  a  re 
spectable  elderly  Italian  woman  whose  husband 
was  in  a  sickly  condition.  One  morning  she  met 
him  in  the  passageway  with  tearful  eyes  and 
said :  ' '  Un  gran"1  disgrazie  happened  last  night, 
—my  poor  husband  went  to  heaven."  Lowell 
wondered  why  there  was  a  pope  in  Eome  if 
going  to  heaven  was  considered  a  disgrace 
there. 

Longfellow's  resignation  of  his  professorship 
at  Harvard  was  a  rare  piece  of  good  fortune  for 
Lowell ;  for  it  was  the  only  position  of  the  kind 
that  he  could  have  obtained  there  or  anywhere 
else.  In  fact,  it  was  a  question  whether  the 
appointment  would  be  confirmed  on  account  of 
his  transcendental  tendencies,  and  his  connec 
tion  with  the  Anti-slavery  Standard;  but  Long 
fellow  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  influence 
in  Lowell's  favor,  and  this  would  seem  to  have 
decided  it.  From  this  time  till  1873  Lowell  was 
more  of  a  prose-writer  than  a  poet,  and  his 
essays  on  Chaucer,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  and 
other  English  poets  are  the  best  of  their  kind, 
—not  brilliant,  but  appreciative,  penetrating, 
and  well-considered.  Wasson  said  of  him  that 
no  other  critic  in  the  English  tongue  came  so 
near  to  expressing  the  inexpressible  as  Lowell. 

One  could  wish  that  his  studies  in  Shakes 
peare  had  been  more  extended.  He  treats  the 


100  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

subject  as  if  lie  felt  it  was  too  great  for  Mm; 
but  he  was  the  first  to  take  notice  that  the  play 
of  Richard  III.  indicated  in  its  main  extent  a 
different  hand,  and  it  is  now  generally  admitted 
to  have  been  the  work  of  Fletcher.  With  the 
keenest  insight  he  noticed  that  the  magician 
Prospero  was  an  impersonation  of  Shakespeare 
himself;  and  George  Brandes,  the  most  thor 
oughgoing  of  Shakespearean  scholars,  after 
wards  came  to  the  same  conclusion. 

Lowell  was  the  gentlemanly  instructor.  He 
appealed  to  the  gentleman  in  the  students  who 
sat  before  him,  and  he  rarely  appealed  in  vain. 
Like  Longfellow  he  carried  an  atmosphere  of 
politeness  about  him,  which  was  sufficient  to 
protect  him  from  everything  rude  and  common. 
He  would  say  to  his  class  in  Italian:  "I  shall 
not  mark  you  if  you  are  tardy,  but  I  hope  you 
will  all  be  here  on  time."  This  was  a  safer 
procedure  with  a  small  division  of  Juniors  than 
it  would  have  been  with  a  large  division  of 
Freshmen  or  Sophomores.  Neither  did  he  take 
much  personal  interest  in  his  classes.  He 
always  invited  them  to  an  entertainment  at 
Elmwood  in  June,  but  two  or  three  years  later 
he  could  not  remember  their  faces  unless  they 
remained  in  or  about  Cambridge.  In  regard  to 
his  efficiency  as  an  instructor  and  lecturer  there 
was  a  difference  of  opinion. 

He  attended  the  meetings  of  the  college  fac- 


LOWELL  101 

ulty  quite  regularly  considering  the  distance  of 
Elmwood  from  the  college  grounds ;  and  he  was 
once  heard  to  say  that  there  seemed  to  be  more 
bad  weather  on  Monday  nights  than  at  any 
other  time  in  the  week.  His  presence  might 
have  been  dispensed  with  for  the  most  part. 
He  rarely  spoke  in  conclave,  and  when  the  ques 
tion  came  up  in  regard  to  the  suspension  of 
students  he  often  declined  to  vote.  His  decorum 
was  perfect,  but  now  and  then  a  humorous  look 
could  be  observed  in  his  eyes,  and  it  may  be 
suspected  that  he  had  a  quiet  laugh  all  to  him 
self  on  the  way  homeward.  On  one  occasion, 
before  the  meeting  had  been  called  to  order, 
Professor  Cutler  said  to  him:  "Do  you  not 
dread  B.'s  forthcoming  translation  of  the 
Iliad ?"  But  Lowell,  seeing  that  he  was 
watched,  replied:  "Oh,  no,  not  at  all,"  at  the 
same  time  nodding  to  Cutler  with  his  brows. 

He  was  always  well-dressed,  and  pretty  close 
to  the  conventional  in  his  ways, — noted  specially 
for  the  nicety  of  his  gloves.  This  was  a  kind 
of  safeguard  to  him.  Insidious  persons  sug 
gested  that  he  perfumed  his  beard,  but  I  do  not 
believe  it.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
fond  of  walking,  for  we  never  met  him  in  any 
part  of  Cambridge  except  on  the  direct  road 
from  Elmwood  to  the  college  gate.  He  had  a 
characteristic  gait  of  his  own — walking  slowly 
in  rather  a  dreamy  manner,  and  keeping  time 


102  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

to  the  movement  of  his  feet  with  his  arms  and 
shoulders.  He  was  not,  however,  lost  in  con 
templation,  for  he  often  scrutinized  those  who 
passed  him  as  closely  as  a  portrait  painter 
might. 

If  one  could  meet  Lowell  in  a  fairly  empty 
horse-car,  he  would  be  quite  sociable  and  enter 
taining  ;  but  if  the  horse-car  filled  up,  he  would 
become  reticent  again.  He  clung  to  his  old 
friends,  his  classmates,  and  others  with  whom 
he  had  grown  up,  and  did  not  easily  make  new 
ones.  The  modesty  of  his  ambition  is  conspic 
uous  in  the  fact  that  he  was  quite  satisfied  with 
the  small  salary  paid  him  by  the  college, — at 
first  only  twelve  hundred  dollars.  He  evidently 
did  not  care  for  luxury. 

Lowell's  second  marriage  was  as  simple  and 
inevitable  as  the  first.  Miss  Dunlap  was  nof  an 
ordinary  housekeeper,  but  the  sister  of  one  of 
Maria  Lowell's  most  intimate  friends,  and  she 
was  such  a  pleasant,  attractive  lady  that  the 
wonder  is  rather  he  should  have  waited  four 
years  before  concluding  to  offer  himself.  She 
was  compared  to  the  Greek  bust  called  Clyte, 
because  her  hair  grew  so  low  down  upon  her 
forehead,  and  this  was  considered  an  additional 
charm. 

Louisa  Alcott  had  a  story  that  at  first  she 
refused  Lowell's  offer  on  account  of  what  peo 
ple  might  say;  and  that  then  he  composed  a 


LOWELL  103 

poem  answering  her  objections  in  the  form  of 
an  allegory,  and  that  this  finally  convinced  her. 
If  he  had  considered  material  interests  he  would 
have  married  differently. 

In  November,  1857,  the  firm  of  Phillips  & 
Sampson  issued  the  first  number  of  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  in  the  cause  of  high-minded  literature, 
—a  cause  which  ultimately  proved  to  be  their 
ruin.  Lowell  accepted  the  position  of  editor, 
and  such  a  periodical  as  it  proved  to  be  under 
his  guidance  could  not  have  been  found  in  Eng 
land,  and  perhaps  not  in  the  whole  of  Europe ; 
but  it  could  not  be  made  to  pay,  and  two  years 
later  Phillips  &  Sampson  failed, — partly  on 
that  account,  and  partially  the  victims  of  a 
piratical  opposition. 

Lowell  published  Emerson's  "Brahma"  in 
spite  of  the  shallow  ridicule  with  which  he  fore 
saw  it  would  be  greeted;  but  when  Emerson 
sent  him  his  "Song  of  Nature"  he  returned  it 
on  account  of  the  single  stanza : 

"  One  in  a  Judsean  manger, 
And  one  by  Avon  stream, 
One  over  against  the  mouths  of  Nile, 
And  one  in  the  Academe." 

which  he  declared  was  more  than  the  Atlantic 
could  be  held  responsible  for.  Emerson,  who 
really  knew  little  as  to  what  the  public  thought 
of  him,  was  for  once  indignant.  He  said:  "I 


104  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

did  not  know  who  had  constituted  Mr.  Lowell 
my  censor,  and  I  carried  the  verses  to  Miss 
Caroline  Hoar,  who  read  them  and  said,  that 
she  considered  those  four  lines  the  best  in  the 
piece. ' '  He  permitted  Lowell,  however,  to  pub 
lish  the  poem  without  them,  as  may  be  seen  by 
examining  the  pages  of  the  Atlantic,  and  after 
wards  published  the  original  copy  in  his  ' '  May 
Day." 

Lowell's  editorship  of  the  North  American 
Review,  which  followed  after  this,  was  not  so 
successful.  It  was  chiefly  a  political  magazine 
at  that  time,  and  to  understand  politics  in  a 
large  way — that  is,  sufficiently  to  write  on  the 
subject — one  must  not  only  be  a  close  observer 
of  public  affairs,  but  also  a  profound  student 
of  history;  and  Lowell  was  neither.  He  was 
not  acquainted  with  prominent  men  in  public 
life,  and  depended  too  much  on  information 
derived  at  dinner-parties,  or  similar  occasions. 
During  the  war  period  Sumner,  Wilson,  and 
Andrew  were  almost  omnipotent  in  Massachu 
setts,  for  the  three  worked  together  in  a  com 
mon  cause;  but  power  always  engenders  envy 
and  so  an  inside  opposition  grew  up  within  the 
Republican  party  to  which  Lowell  lent  his  assist 
ance  without  being  aware  of  its  true  character. 
His  articles  in  the  North  American  on  pub 
lic  affairs  were  severely  criticised  by  Andrew 
and  Wilson,  while  Frank  W.  Bird  frankly  called 


LOWELL  105 

them  "giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy." 
It  was  certainly  a  doubtful  course  to  pursue  at 
such  a  critical  juncture — when  all  patriots 
should  have  been  united — and  it  offended  a 
good  many  Republicans  without  conciliating 
the  opposition.  Lowell's  successor  in  this  edi 
torial  chair  was  an  old  Webster  Whig  who  had 
become  a  Democrat. 

In  1873  he  resigned  his  professorship  and 
went  to  Italy  for  a  holiday.  He  said  to  some 
friends  whom  he  met  in  Florence:  "I  am  tired 
of  being  called  Professor  Lowell,  and  I  want 
to  be  plain  Mr.  Lowell  again.  Eliot  wanted  to 
keep  my  name  on  the  catalogue  for  the  honor  of 
the  university,  but  I  did  not  like  the  idea." 
This  was  true  republicanism  and  worthy  of  a 
poet. 

Lowell  was  little  known  on  the  continent,  and 
he  travelled  in  a  quiet,  unostentatious  manner. 
He  went  to  dine  with  his  old  friends,  but 
avoided  introductions,  and  remained  at  Flor 
ence  nearly  two  months  after  other  Americans 
had  departed  for  Eome.  The  reason  he  alleged 
for  this  was  that  Rome  was  a  mouldy  place  and 
the  ruins  made  him  feel  melancholy;  also, 
because  he  preferred  oil  paintings  to  frescos. 
He  had  just  come  from  Venice,  and  spoke  with 
enthusiasm  of  the  mighty  works  of  Tintoretto, 
—especially  his  small  painting  of  the  Visita 
tion,  above  the  landing  of  the  staircase  in  the 


106  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Scuola  of  San  Eocco.  He  did  not  like  the  easel- 
paintings  of  Eaphael  on  account  of  their  hard 
outlines;  those  in  the  Vatican  did  him  better 
justice.  This  idea  he  may  have  derived  from 
William  Morris  Hunt,  the  Boston  portrait- 
painter.  He  considered  the  action  of  the  Niobe 
group  too  strenuous  to  be  represented  in 
marble. 

Miss  Mary  Felton  liked  the  Niobe  statues ;  so 
Lowell  said,  "Now  come  back  with  me,  and  I 
will  sit  on  you."  Accordingly  we  all  returned 
to  the  Niobe  hall,  where  Lowell  lectured  us  on 
the  statues  without,  however,  entirely  con 
vincing  Miss  Felton.  Then  we  went  to  the  hall 
in  the  Uffizi  Palace,  which  is  called  the  Tribune. 
Mrs.  Lowell  had  never  been  in  the  Tribune, 
where  the  Venus  de'  Medici  is  enshrined;  so 
her  husband  opened  the  door  wide  and  said, 
"Now  go  in" — as  if  he  were  opening  the  gates 
of  Paradise. 

At  Bologna  he  wished  to  make  an  excursion 
into  the  mountains,  but  the  veturino  charged 
about  twice  the  usual  price,  and  though  the  man 
afterwards  reduced  his  demand  to  a  reasonable 
figure  Lowell  would  not  go  with  him  at  all,  and 
told  him  that  such  practices  made  Americans 
dislike  the  Italian  people.  It  is  to  be  feared 
that  a  strange  Italian  might  fare  just  as  badly 
in  America. 

Eeaders  of  Lowell's  "Fireside  Travels"  will 


LOWELL  107 

have  noticed  that  the  first  of  them  is  addressed 
to  the  "Edelmann  Storg"  in  Eome.  The  true 
translation  of  this  expression  is  "Nobleman 
Story ;"  that  is,  William  W.  Story,  the  sculp 
tor,  who  modelled  the  statue  of  Edward  Everett 
in  the  Boston  public  garden.  Lowell's  biog 
rapher,  however,  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
aware  of  the  full  significance  of  this  paraphrase 
of  Story's  name. 

When  King  Bomba  II.  was  expelled  from  Na 
ples  by  Garibaldi  he  retired  to  Eome  with  his 
private  possessions,  including  a  large  number 
of  oil  paintings.  Wishing  to  dispose  of  some  of 
these,  and  being  aware  that  Americans  paid 
good  prices,  he  applied  to  William  Story  to 
transact  the  business  for  him.  This  the  sculp 
tor  did  in  a  satisfactory  manner;  whereupon 
King  Bomba,  instead  of  rewarding  Story  with 
a  cheque,  conferred  on  him  a  patent  of  nobility. 
It  seems  equally  strange  that  Story  should  have 
accepted  such  a  dubious  honor,  and  that  Lowell 
should  recognize  it. 

On  his  return  to  Cambridge  the  following 
year,  Lowell  found  himself  a  grandfather,  his 
daughter  having  married  a  gentleman  farmer 
in  Worcester  county.  He  was  greatly  de 
lighted,  and  wrote  to  E.  L.  G-odkin,  editor  of 
The  Nation: 

' l  If  you  wish  to  taste  the  real  bouquet  of  life, 
I  advise  you  to  procure  yourself  a  grandson, 


108  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

whether  by  adoption  or  theft.  .  .  .  Get  one,  and 
the  Nation  will  no  longer  offend  anybody. "  * 

This  was  a  pretty  broad  hint,  but  E.  L.  God- 
kin  was  not  the  man  to  pay  much  attention  to 
the  advice  of  Lowell  or  anybody.  In  fact,  he 
seems  to  have  won  Lowell  over  after  this  to  his 
own  way  of  thinking. 

Lowell  certainly  became  more  conservative 
with  age.  He  did  not  support  the  movement 
for  negro  citizenship,  and  had  separated  him 
self  in  a  manner  from  the  other  New  England 
poets.  After  1872  Longfellow  saw  little  of  him, 
except  on  state  occasions.  In  1876  he  made  a 
political  address  that  showed  that  if  he  had  not 
already  gone  over  to  the  Democratic  party  he 
was  very  close  upon  the  line.  Charles  Francis 
Adams  had  already  gone  over  to  Tilden,  and  had 
carried  the  North  American  Review  with  him. 
It  would  not  do  to  lose  Lowell  also,  so  the  Re 
publican  leaders  hit  upon  the  shrewd  device  of 
nominating  him  as  a  presidential  elector,  an 
honor  which  he  could  not  very  well  decline. 
When  the  disputed  election  of  Hayes  and  Til- 
den  came,  Godkin  proposed  that,  in  order  to 
prevent  "  Mexicanizing  the  government,"  one 
of  the  Hayes  electors  should  cast  his  vote  for 
General  Bristow,  which  would  throw  the  elec 
tion  of  President  into  the  House  of  Representa- 

*  Scudder's  biography,  ii.,  186. 


LOWELL  109 

tives;  and  he  endeavored  to  persuade  Lowell 
to  do  this.  Lowell  went  so  far  as  to  take  legal 
advice  on  the  subject,  but  his  counsellor  in 
formed  him  that  since  the  election  of  John 
Quincy  Adams  it  had  been  virtually  decided  that 
an  elector  must  cast  his  vote  according  to  the 
ticket  on  which  he  was  chosen.  When  the  elec 
tors  met  at  the  Parker  House  in  January,  1877, 
Lowell  deposited  his  ballot  for  Hayes  and 
Wheeler,  and  the  slight  applause  that  followed 
showed  that  his  colleagues  were  conscious  of  the 
position  he  had  assumed. 

When  President  Hayes  appointed  Lowell  to 
be  Minister  to  Spain,  Lowell  remarked  that  he 
did  not  see  why  it  should  have  come  to  him.  It 
really  came  to  him  through  his  friend  E.  E. 
Hoar,  of  Concord,  who  was  brother-in-law  to 
Secretary  Evarts.  His  friends  wondered  that 
he  should  accept  the  position,  but  the  truth  was 
that  Lowell  at  this  time  was  comparatively  poor. 
His  taxes  had  increased,  and  his  income  had 
diminished.  He  complained  to  C.  P.  Cranch 
that  the  whole  profit  from  the  sale  of  his  books 
during  the  preceding  year  was  less  than  a  hun 
dred  dollars,  and  he  thought  there  ought  to  be 
a  law  for  the  protection  of  authors.  The  real 
trouble  was  hard  times. 

He  did  not  like  Madrid,  and  at  the  end  of  a 
year  wrote  that  it  seemed  impossible  for  him  to 
endure  the  life  there  any  longer.  Evarts  gave 


110  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

him  a  vacation,  and  at  the  end  of  the  second 
year  Hayes  promoted  him  to  the  Court  of  St. 
James. 

Snch  an  appointment  would  have  been  dan 
gerous  enough  in  1861,  but  at  the  time  it  was 
made  the  relations  between  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain  were  sufficiently  peaceable  to 
warrant  it.  Lowell  represented  his  country  in 
a  highly  creditable  manner.  The  only  difficulty 
he  experienced  was  with  the  Fenian  agitation, 
and  he  managed  that  with  such  diplomatic  tact 
that  no  one  has  yet  been  able  to  discover 
whether  he  was  in  favor  of  home  rule  for  Ire 
land  or  not. 

He  made  a  number  of  excellent  addresses  in 
England,  besides  a  multitude  of  after-dinner 
speeches.  Perhaps  the  best  of  them  was  his  ad 
dress  at  the  Coleridge  celebration,  in  which  he 
levelled  an  attack  on  the  English  canonization 
of  what  they  call  "  common  sense,"  but  which 
is  really  a  new  name  for  dogmatism.  Lowell, 
if  not  a  transcendentalist,  was  always  an  ideal 
ist,  and  he  knew  that  ideality  was  as  necessary 
to  Cromwell  and  Canning  as  it  was  to  Shakes 
peare  and  Scott. 

He  was  certainly  more  popular  in  England 
than  he  had  ever  been  in  America,  and  he 
openly  admitted  that  he  disliked  to  resign  his 
position.  Professor  Child  said,  in  1882:  "  Low 
ell  's  conversation  is  witty,  with  a  basis  of  liter- 


LOWELL  111 

ary  cramming;  and  that  seems  to  be  what  the 
English  like.  He  went  to  twenty-nine  dinner 
parties  in  the  month  of  June,  and  made  a  speech 
at  each  one  of  them. ' ' 

In  the  last  years  of  his  life  he  was  greatly 
infested  with  imitators  who,  as  he  said  of  Emer 
son  in  the  "  Fable  for  Critics,"  stole  his  fruit 
and  then  brought  it  back  to  him  on  their  own 
dishes.  Some  of  them  were  too  influential  to 
be  easily  disposed  of,  and  others  did  not  know 
when  they  were  rebuffed.  An  old  man,  failing 
in  strength  and  vigor,  he  had  to  endure  them  as 
best  he  could. 

The  story  of  Lowell's  visions  rests  on  a  single 
authority,  and  if  there  was  any  truth  in  it,  it 
seems  probable  that  he  would  have  confided  the 
fact  to  more  intimate  friends.  There  are  well- 
authenticated  instances  of  visions  seen  by  per 
sons  in  a  waking  condition — this  always  hap 
pens,  for  instance,  in  delirium  tremens — but 
they  are  sure  to  indicate  nervous  derangement, 
and  are  commonly  followed  by  death.  If  there 
was  ever  a  poet  with  a  sound  mind  and  a  sound 
body,  it  was  James  Russell  Lowell. 

Edwin  Arnold  considered  him  the  best  of 
American  poets,  while  Matthew  Arnold  did  not 
like  him  at  all.  Emerson,  in  his  last  years,  pre 
ferred  him  to  Longfellow,  but  it  is  doubtful  if 
he  always  did  so.  The  strong  point  of  his  poetry 
is  its  intelligent  manliness, — the  absence  of  af- 


112  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

f ectation  and  all  sentimentality ;  but  it  lacks  the 
musical  element.  He  composed  neither  songs 
nor  ballads, — nothing  to  match  Hiawatha,  or 
Gray's  famous  Elegy.  America  still  awaits  a 
poet  who  shall  combine  the  savoir  faire  of  Low 
ell  with  the  force  of  Emerson  and  the  grace  and 
purity  of  Longfellow. 

Emerson  had  an  advantage  over  his  literary 
contemporaries  in  the  vigorous  life  he  lived. 
You  feel  in  his  writing  the  energy  of  necessity. 
The  academic  shade  is  not  favorable  to  the  cul 
tivation  of  genius,  and  Lowell  reclined  under  it 
too  much.  His  best  work  was  already  per 
formed  before  he  became  a  professor.  What  he 
lacks  as  a  poet,  however,  he  compensates  for 
as  a  wit.  He  is  the  best  of  American  humorists 
—there  are  few  who  will  be  inclined  to  dispute 
that — even  though  we  regret  occasional  cyni 
cisms,  like  his  jest  on  Milton's  blindness  in 
"  Fireside  Travels." 


C.  P.  CRANCH 


CEANCH. 

CHRISTOPHER  PEARCE  CRANCH  was  born 
March  9,  1813,  at  Alexandria,  Virginia,  and  was 
the  son  of  Judge  William  Cranch,  of  the  United 
States  Circuit  Court.  His  father  came  orig 
inally  from  Weymouth,  Massachusetts,  and  had 
been  appointed  to  his  position  through  the  influ 
ence  of  John  Quancy  Adams.  His  mother, 
Anna  Greenleaf ,  belonged  to  a  well  known  Bos 
ton  family.  Pearce,  as  he  was  always  called  by 
his  relatives,  indicated  a  talent  for  the  fine  arts, 
as  commonly  happens,  at  an  early  age,  and 
united  with  this  a  lively  interest  in  music,  sing 
ing  and  playing  on  the  flute.  These  side  issues 
may  have  prevented  him  from  entering  college 
so  early  as  he  might  otherwise  have  done.  He 
graduated  at  Columbia  College,  in  1832,  after 
a  three-year  course.  He  wished  to  make  a  pro 
fession  of  painting,  but  Judge  Cranch  was 
aware  how  precarious  this  would  be  as  a  means 
of  livelihood,  and  advised  him  to  study  for  the 
ministry, — for  which  his  quiet  ways  and  grave 
demeanor  seemed  to  have  adapted  him.  He  ac 
cordingly  entered  the  Harvard  Divinity-School, 
and  was  ordained  as  a  Unitarian  clergyman. 

For  the  next  six  years  Cranch  lived  the  life  of 
an  itinerant  preacher.  He  preached  all  over 

8  113 


114  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

New  England,  making  friends  everywhere,  and 
receiving  numerous  calls  without,  however,  set 
tling  down  to  a  fixed  habitation.  This  would 
seem  to  have  been  a  peculiarity  of  his  tempera 
ment  ;  for  in  1875  George  William  Curtis  wrote 
to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cranch  a  letter  which  began 
with  "  0  ye  Bedouins'7 ;  and  it  is  true  that  until 
that  time  he  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  had  a 
habitation  of  his  own.  He  extended  his  migra 
tion  as  minister-at-large  from  Bangor,  Maine, 
to  Louisville,  Kentucky.  His  varied  accom 
plishments  made  him  attractive  to  the  younger 
members  of  the  parishes  for  which  he  preached, 
but  he  never  remained  long  enough  in  one  place 
for  their  interest  to  take  root. 

The  wave  of  German  thought  and  literary  in 
terest  was  now  sweeping  over  England  and 
America.  Repelled  by  doctors  of  divinity  and 
the  older  class  of  scholars,  it  was  seized  upon 
with  avidity  by  the  more  susceptible  natures  of 
the  younger  generation.  Its  influence  was  des 
tined  to  be  felt  all  through  the  coming  period  of 
American  literature.  C.  P.  Cranch  was  affected 
by  it,  as  Emerson,  Longfellow  and  even  Haw 
thorne,  were  affected  by  it.  This,  however,  did 
not  take  place  at  once,  and  when  Emerson's 
"  Nature"  was  published,  Cranch  was  at  first 
repelled  by  the  peculiarity  of  its  style.  At  the 
house  of  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clark,  in  Cincin 
nati,  he  drew  some  innocently  satirical  illus- 


CRANCH  115 

trations  of  it.  One  was  of  a  man  with  an  enor 
mous  eye  under  which  he  wrote :  "I  became 
one  great  transparent  eye-ball";  and  another 
was  a  pumpkin  with  a  human  face,  beneath 
which  was  written :  ' '  We  expand  and  grow  in 
the  sunshine. ' '  In  another  sketch  Emerson  and 
Margaret  Fuller  were  represented  driving 
"  over  hill  and  dale"  in  a  rockaway.* 

He  would  make  these  humorous  sketches  to 
entertain  his  friends  at  any  time,  seizing  on  a 
half-sheet  of  paper,  or  whatever  might  be  at 
hand ;  but  he  did  not  long  continue  to  caricature 
Emerson.  His  first  volume  of  poetry,  published 
in  1844,  was  dedicated  to  Emerson,  and  in 
Dwight's  "  Translations  from  Goethe  and 
Schiller,"  there  are  a  number  of  short  pieces 
by  Cranch,  almost  perfect  in  their  rendering 
from  German  to  English.  Among  these  the  cel 
ebrated  ballad  of  "  The  Fisher"  is  translated 
so  beautifully  as  to  be  slightly,  if  at  all,  inferior 
to  the  original.  The  stanza, 

"  The  water  in  dreamy  motion  kept, 
As  he  sat  in  a  dreamy  mood, 
A  wave  hove  up,  and  a  damsel  stept 
All  dripping  from  the  flood," 

may  have  appealed  strongly  to  Cranch  at  this 
time ;  for  we  find  that  in  October,  1841,  he  was 

*  Sanborn's  Life  of  Alcott. 


116  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

married  at  Fishkill-on-the-Hudson  to  a  young 
lady  of  an  old  Knickerbocker  family,  Miss  Eliz 
abeth  De  Windt.  If  she  did  not  come  to  him 
out  of  the  Hudson,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he 
courted  her  by  the  banks  of  the  most  beautiful 
river  in  North  America. 

Cranch  had  given  up  the  clerical  profession 
six  months  before  this,  and  had  adopted  that  of 
a  landscape  painter,  for  which  he  would  seem  to 
have  studied  with  some  artist  in  New  York  City, 
—unknown  to  fame,  and  long  since  forgotten. 
He  continued  to  sketch  and  paint,  and  write 
prose  and  verse  on  the  Hudson  until  1846,  when 
he  embarked  with  his  wife  on  a  sailing  packet 
for  Marseilles.  He  had  the  good  fortune  to  find 
a  fellow-passenger  in  George  William  Curtis, 
and  during  the  voyage  of  seven  weeks,  a  life 
long  friendship  grew  up  between  these  two 
highly  gifted  men. 

The  volume  of  poems  which  he  published  in 
1844  is  now  exceedingly  rare ;  yet  many  of  the 
pieces  belong  to  a  high  order  of  excellence.  In 
ease  and  grace  of  versification  they  resemble 
Longfellow,  but  in  thought  they  are  more  like 
Emerson  or  Goethe.  Consider  this  opening 
from  "  The  Biddle": 

"  Ye  bards,  ye  prophets,  ye  sages, 

Read  to  me,  if  ye  can, 
That  which  hath  been  the  riddle  of  ages, 
Read  me  the  riddle  of  Man. 


CRANCH  117 

Then  came  the  bard  with  his  lyre, 

And  the  sage  with  his  pen  and  scroll, 
And  the  prophet  with  his  eye  of  fire, 

To  unriddle  a  human  soul. 

But  the  soul  stood  up  in  its  might; 

Its  stature  they  could  not  scan; 
And  it  rayed  out  a  dazzling  mystic  light, 

And  shamed  their  wisest  plan. 

Yet  sweetly  the  bard  did  sing, 

And  learnedly  talked  the  sage, 
And  the  seer  flashed  by  with  his  lightning  wing, 

Soaring  beyond  his  age." 

This  is  sonorous.  It  has  a  majesty  of  expres 
sion  and  a  greatness  of  thought  which  makes 
Longfellow's  "  Psalm  of  Life"  seem  weak  and 
even  common-place.  The  whole  poem  is  pitched 
in  the  same  key,  and  Cranch  never  equalled  it 
again,  excepting  once,  and  then  in  a  very  differ 
ent  manner.  Rev.  Gideon  Arch,  a  Hungarian 
scholar,  philologist,  and  exile  of  1849,  said  of 
his  "  Endymion"  that  there  were  Endymions 
in  all  languages,  but  that  Cranch 's  was  the  best. 
To  resuscitate  it  from  the  oblivion  into  which 
it  has  fallen,  it  is  given  entire : 

"  Yes,  it  is  the  queenly  moon 
Walking  through  her  starred  saloon, 
Silvering  all  she  looks  upon: 
I  am  her  Endymion; 
For  by  night  she  comes  to  me, — 
0,  I  love  her  wondrously. 


118  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

She  into  my  window  looks, 
As  I  sit  with  lamp  and  books, 
And  the  night-breeze  stirs  the  leaves, 
And  the  dew  drips  down  the  eaves; 
O'er  my  shoulder  peepeth  she, 
0,  she  loves  me  royally ! 

Then  she  tells  me  many  a  tale, 
With  her  smile,  so  sheeny  pale, 
Till  my  soul  is  overcast 
With  such  dream-light  of  the  past, 
That  I  saddened  needs  must  be, 
And  I  love  her  mournfully. 

Oft  I  gaze  up  in  her  eyes, 

Raying  light  through  winter  skies ; 

Far  away  she  saileth  on; 

I  am  no  Endymion; 

0,  she  is  too  bright  for  me, 

And  I  love  her  hopelessly! 

Now  she  comes  to  me  again, 
And  we  mingle  joy  and  pain, 
Now  she  walks  no  more  afar, 
Regal  with  train-bearing  star, 
But  she  bends  and  kisses  me — 
0,  we  love  now  mutually !" 

This  has  the  very  sheen  of  moonlight  upon 
it,  and  certainly  is  to  be  preferred  to  Dr.  John 
son  's  scholastic  "Endymion" : 

"  Diana,  huntress  chaste  and  fair, 
Now  thy  hounds  have  gone  to  sleep," — 


CRANCH  119 

If  Cranch  had  continued  in  this  line,  and  per 
haps  have  improved  upon  it,  he  would  surely 
have  become  one  of  the  foremost  American 
poets,  but  a  poet  cannot  live  by  verse  alone,  and 
after  he  began  to  be  thoroughly  in  earnest  with 
his  painting,  his  rhythmic  genius  fell  into  the 
background.  From  Marseilles  George  W.  Cur 
tis  proceeded  to  Egypt,  where  he  wrote  his  well 
known  book  of  Nile  travels,  while  Cranch  set 
out  for  Rome  to  perfect  his  art. 

He  studied  there  at  a  night-school,  painting 
in  water  colors  from  nude  models  and  arrange 
ments  of  drapery,  but  not  taking  lessons  from 
any  regular  instructor.  He  never  applied  him 
self  much  to  figure-painting,  however.  He  sold 
his  paintings  chiefly  to  American  travellers,  and 
when  the  Revolution  broke  out  in  1848,  he  re 
turned  to  Sorrento,  where  his  second  child,  Mrs. 
Leonora  Scott,  was  born.  His  first  child  was 
born  the  year  previous,  in  Rome,  but  afterwards 
died.  In  1851,  he  returned  to  New  York  and 
Fishkill,  but  not  meeting  with  such  good  appre 
ciation  there  as  he  had  in  Italy,  he  went  to  Eu 
rope  again  in  the  autumn  of  1853,  and  resided  in 
Paris.  One  cause  of  this  may  have  been  the 
unfriendliness  of  his  brother-in-law,  who  was  a 
leading  art  critic  in  New  York  City,  and  who 
disliked  Cranch  on  account  of  his  wife,  and 
never  neglected  an  opportunity  of  disparaging 
his  work. 


120  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

One  of  his  early  landscapes  is  now  before  me. 
I  think  it  must  have  been  painted  anterior  to  his 
sojourn  in  Rome,  owing  to  the  coldness  of  the 
coloring.  It  represents  a  scene  on  the  Hudson 
near  Fishkill,  with  some  cattle  in  the  fore 
ground,  and  a  rather  bold-looking  mountain  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  The  clouds  above 
the  mountain  are  light  and  fleecy;  the  foliage 
soft  and  graceful;  the  cattle  also  are  fine,  but 
the  effect  is  like  a  chilly  spring  day  when  one 
requires  a  winter  overcoat.  An  allegorical 
piece,  illustrating  Heine's  fir-tree  dreaming  of 
the  palm,  has  a  much  pleasanter  effect,  although 
it  represents  a  wintry  scene. 

His  art  improved  greatly  in  Paris,  and  he 
also  wrote  a  number  of  short  poems  which  his 
friend,  James  Russell  Lowell,  published  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly.  In  1856  George  L.  Stearns 
sent  him  an  order  for  a  painting,  which  Cranch 
executed  the  following  year,  and  wrote  Mr. 
Stearns  this  explanation  concerning  it,  in  a  very 
interesting  letter  dated  Paris,  March  18,  1857 : 

"Your  picture  is  done  and  is  quite  a  favorite 
with  those  who  have  seen  it.  In  fact,  I  think  so 
well  of  it  that  I  shall  probably  send  it  to  the 
Exposition,  which  opens  soon.  After  that  it 
shall  be  sent  to  you.  It  is  an  oak  and  a  sunset 
— a  warm  and  low-toned  picture — and  I  am  sure 
you  will  like  it." 

This  landscape  represents  two  vigorous  oak 


CRANCH  121 

trees  by  the  bank  of  a  river,  with  a  sunset  seen 
through  the  branches,  and  reflected  in  the  water. 
The  scene  is  remarkably  like  a  similar  one  on 
Concord  River,  about  two  hundred  yards  below 
the  spot  where  Hawthorne  and  Channing  dis 
covered  the  body  of  the  schoolmistress  who 
drowned  herself,  as  Hawthorne  supposed,  from 
lack  of  sympathy.  It  seems  as  if  the  original 
sketch  must  have  been  made  at  that  point.  It 
is  of  a  deep  rich  coloring,  smoothly  and  deli 
cately  finished, — a  painting  that  no  one  has  yet 
been  able  to  find  fault  with.  Eev.  Samuel  Long 
fellow,  who  knew  almost  every  picture  in  the 
galleries  of  Europe,  considered  it  equal  to  a 
Buysdael,  and  he  liked  it  better  than  a  Euys- 
dael. 

In  the  letter  above  referred  to  Cranch  also 
writes : 

"  Since  your  letter  (a  long  time  ago)  I  have 
written  you  a  good  many  epistles  (in  a  kind  of 
invisible  ink  of  my  invention)  which  probably 
you  have  never  received. 

"The  truth  is,  I  am  a  distinguished  case  of 
total  depravity  in  the  matter  of  correspond 
ence.  Letters  ought  to  flow  from  one  as  easily 
and  spontaneously  as  spoken  words.  But  then 
one  must  write  all  the  time  and  report  life  con 
tinuously,  as  one  does  in  speech.  A  letter  does 
nothing  but  give  some  little  detached  morsel  of 
one's  life — and  we  say  to  ourselves  what  is  the 


122  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

use  of  holding  up  to  a  friend  three  thousand 
miles  off  such  unsatisfactory  statements,  such 
dribblings  and  droppings?  'Write  what  is  up 
permost,  '  says  one  at  your  elbow.  Ah,  if  we 
could  only  say  what  is  uppermost ;  as  I  sit  down 
for  instance  to  write  (say  this  letter)  I  am 
caught  into  a  sort  of  whirl  of  thoughts,  in  which 
it  is  impossible  to  say  exactly  what  is  foremost 
and  what  is  hindmost.  Then  if  I  only  attempt 
to  narrate  events,  where  am  I  to  begin — so  you 
see  (I  am  theorizing  about  letters)  a  letter  must 
be  a  sort  of  epitome  of  a  friend's  being  and  life 
or  else  nothing.  Applying  the  theory  to  myself, 
finding  myself  unable  to  shut  my  genie  in  a  box 
and  carry  him  on  my  shoulders,  I  simply  go  and 
state  that  there  is  such  a  box  with  a  genie  sup 
posed  to  be  in  it,  lying  at  the  custom-house,  and 
here  is  the  roughest  sort  of  sketch  of  it,"  etc. 

This  is  characteristic  of  the  man.  He  lived 
largely  in  an  atmosphere  of  poetic  pleasantry, 
which  served  as  an  alleviation  to  his  cares  and 
as  an  attraction  to  his  friends. 

Cranch  did  not  always  succeed  so  well.  He 
never  became  a  mannerist,  but  there  was  too 
much  similarity  in  his  subjects,  and  the  treat 
ment  too  often  bordered  on  the  commonplace. 
Tintoretto  said :  ' l  Colors  can  be  bought  at  the 
paint-shop,  but  good  designs  are  only  obtained 
by  sleepless  nights  and  much  reflection. "  It 
is  doubtful  if  Cranch  ever  laid  awake  over  his 


GRANGE  123 

work,  either  in  poetry  or  painting.  He  had  a 
dreamy,  phlegmatic  disposition,  which  seemed 
to  carry  him  through  life  without  much  effort 
of  the  will.  He  once  confessed  that  when  he 
was  a  boy  he  would  never  fire  a  gun  for  fear 
it  might  kick  him  over,  and  when  he  was  at 
Hampton  beach  in  1875  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
going  out  to  sketch  at  a  certain  hour  with  pro 
saic  regularity.  He  did  not  seem  to  be  on  the 
watch,  as  an  artist  should,  for  rare  effects  of 
light  and  scenery,  and  he  talked  of  art  with  very 
little  enthusiasm.  Yet  he  lived  the  true  life  of 
his  profession,  enjoying  his  work,  contented 
with  little  praise,  and  without  envy  of  those 
who  were  more  fortunate.  What  is  called 
odium  artisticum  was  unknown  to  him. 

He  was  an  unpretending,  courteous  Ameri 
can  gentleman.  His  disposition  was  perfect, 
and  no  one  could  remember  having  seen  him 
out  of  temper.  His  pleasant  flow  of  wit  and 
humor,  together  with  his  varied  accomplish 
ments,  made  him  a  very  brilliant  man  in  society, 
and  he  counted  among  his  friends  the  finest  lit 
erati  in  Borne,  London,  and  the  United  States. 
He  knew  Thackeray  as  he  knew  Curtis  and  Low 
ell,  and  was  once  dining  with  him  in  a  London 
chop-house,  when  Thackeray  said:  "Have  you 
read  the  last  number  of  The  Newcombs? — if 
not,  I  will  read  it  to  you."  Accordingly  he 
gave  the  waiter  a  shilling  to  obtain  the  docu- 


124  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

ment,  and  read  it  aloud  to  Cranch  and  a  friend 
who  was  with  him.*  Cranch  could  never  under 
stand  this,  for  it  was  the  last  thing  he  would 
have  done  himself  without  an  invitation;  but 
he  enjoyed  the  reading,  and  often  referred  to  it. 

When  he  returned  to  America  in  1863  he  went 
to  live  on  Staten  Island  in  order  to  be  near 
George  William  Curtis,  who  cared  for  him  as 
Damon  did  for  Pythias,  and  who  served  to 
counteract  the  ill-omened  influence  of  Cranch 's 
brother-in-law.  The  Century  Club  purchased 
one  of  his  pictures,  an  allegorical  subject,  which 
I  believe  still  hangs  in  their  halls.  From  1873 
to  1877  Lowell  would  seem  to  have  frequented 
Cranch 's  house  in  preference  to  any  other  in 
Cambridge. 

When  Cranch  first  went  to  live  there  he  occu 
pied  a  small  but  sunny  and  otherwise  desirable 
house  on  the  westerly  side  of  Appian  Way,— 
a  name  that  amused  him  mightily, — but  in  1876 
he  purchased  the  house  on  the  southwestern 
corner  of  Ellery  and  Harvard  Streets.  Having 
arranged  his  household  goods  there  he  sent  one 
of  his  own  paintings  as  a  present  to  Emerson 
in  order  to  renew  their  early  acquaintance. 
Emerson  responded  to  it  by  a  characteristic 
note,  in  which  he  said  that  his  son  and  daugh 
ter,  who  were  both  good  artists,  had  expressed 

*  Both  mentioned  in  Hawthorne's  Notebook. 


CRANCH  125 

their  approval  of  his  present.  He  then  referred 
to  the  danger  which  arises  from  a  multiplicity 
of  talents,  and  said :  "I  well  recollect  how  you 
made  the  frogs  vocal  in  the  ponds  back  of 
Sleepy  Hollow. » 

Cranch  did  not  feel  that  this  was  very  com 
plimentary,  but  a  few  days  later  there  came  an 
invitation  for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cranch  to  spend 
the  day  at  Concord.  Emerson  met  them  at  the 
railway  station  with  his  carryall.  He  had  on 
an  old  cylinder  hat  which  had  evidently  seen 
good  service,  and  yet  became  him  remarkably. 
He  was  interested  to  hear  what  George  William 
Curtis  thought  about  politics,  and  to  find  that  it 
agreed  closely  with  the  opinion  of  his  friend, 
Judge  Hoar.  The  Cranchs  had  a  delightful 
visit. 

Cranch 's  baritone  voice  was  like  his  poem, 
the  "Riddle,"  deep,  rich  and  sonorous.  He 
might  have  earned  a  larger  income  with  it,  per 
haps,  than  he  did  by  writing  and  painting.  He 
sang  comic  songs  in  a  manner  peculiarly  his 
own, — as  if  the  words  were  enclosed  in  a  paren 
thesis, — as  much  as  to  say,  "I  do  not  approve 
of  this,  but  I  sing  it  just  the  same,"  and  this 
made  the  performance  all  the  more  amusing. 
He  sang  Bret  Harte's  "Jim"  in  a  very  effec 
tive  manner,  and  he  often  sang  the  epitaph  on 
Shakespeare's  tomb, 

"  Good  friend,  for  Jesus  sake  forbeare," 


126  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

as  a  recitative,  both  in  English  and  Italian,— 
In  questa  tomba.  He  seemed  to  bring  out  a  hid 
den  force  in  his  singing,  which  was  not  appar 
ent  on  ordinary  occasions.  His  reading  of 
poetry  was  also  fine,  but  he  depended  in  it 
rather  too  much  on  his  voice,  too  little  on  the 
meaning  of  the  verse.  It  was  not  equal  to  Celia 
Thaxter's  reading. 

The  same  types  of  physiognomy  continually 
reappear  among  artists.  William  M.  Hunt 
looked  like  Horace  Vernet,  and  Cranch  in  his 
old  age  resembled  the  Louvre  portrait  of  Tin 
toretto,  although  his  features  were  not  so 
strong.  He  used  to  say  in  jest  that  he  was  de 
scended  from  Lucas  Cranach,  but  that  the  sec 
ond  vowel  had  dropped  out.  He  cared  as  little 
for  the  fashions  as  poets  and  artists  commonly 
do,  but  there  was  no  dandy  in  Boston  who  ap 
peared  so  well  in  a  full  dress  suit. 

In  1873  the  Velasquez  method  of  painting 
was  in  full  vogue  at  Boston.  Cranch  did  not 
believe  in  imitations,  or  in  adopting  the  latest 
style  from  Paris,  and  he  set  himself  against  the 
popular  hue-and-cry  somewhat  to  his  personal 
disadvantage.  Charles  Perkins  and  the  other 
art  scholars  who  founded  the  Art  Museum  in 
Copley  Square  were  all  on  Cranch 's  side,  but 
that  did  not  seem  to  help  him  with  the  public. 
"They  cannot  bend  the  bow  of  Ulysses, "  said 
Cranch  in  some  disgust.  He  preferred  Murillo 


CRANCH  127 

to  Velasquez,  and  once  had  quite  an  argument 
with  William  Hunt  on  the  subject  in  Doll  & 
Richards 's  picture-store.  Hunt  asserted  that 
there  was  no  essential  difference  between  a 
sketch  and  a  finished  picture, — he  might  have 
said  there  was  no  difference  between  a  boy  and 
a  man, — that  all  the  artist  needed  was  to  ex 
press  himself,  and  that  it  was  immaterial  in 
what  way  he  did  so.  Cranch  thought  after 
wards,  though  unfortunately  it  did  not  occur 
to  him  at  the  moment,  that  the  test  of  such  a 
theory  would  be  its  application  to  sculpture. 
He  wondered  what  Raphael  would  have  thought 
of  it. 

It  was  quite  a  grief  to  Cranch  that  his  own 
daughter,  who  inherited  his  talent,  should  have 
deserted  him  at  this  juncture,  and  gone  over 
to  the  opposition.  She  filled  his  house  with 
rough,  heavily-shaded  studies  of  still-life, 
flowers,  and  faces  of  her  friends;  but  of  all 
Hunt's  pupils,  Miss  Cranch,  Miss  Knowlton, 
and  Miss  Lamb  were  the  only  ones  who 
achieved  artistic  distinction  in  their  special 
work. 

It  was  in  order  to  withdraw  her  from  this 
Walpurgis  art-dance  that  Cranch  undertook  his 
last  journey  to  Paris  in  his  seventieth  year. 
There  the  young  lady  quickly  dropped  her  Bos 
ton  method,  and,  acquiring  a  more  conservative 
handling,  became  an  excellent  portrait  painter ; 


128  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

too  soon,  however,  obliged  to  relinquish  her  art 
on  account  of  ill-health. 

Cranch's  landscapes  now  adorn  the  walls  of 
private  houses ;  very  largely  the  houses  of  his 
numerous  friends.  He  did  not  paint  in  the 
fashion  of  the  time,  but  like  Millet  followed  a 
fashion  of  his  own ;  and  I  do  not  know  of  any 
of  his  pictures  in  public  collections,  although 
there  are  many  that  deserve  the  honor.  The 
best  landscape  of  his  that  I  have  seen  was 
painted  just  before  his  last  visit  to  Paris.  It 
represents  a  low-toned  sunset  like  the  "Two 
Oaks";  an  autumnal  scene  on  a  narrow  river, 
with  maples  here  and  there  upon  its  banks.  The 
sky  is  covered  by  a  dull  gray  cloud,  but  in  the 
west  the  sun  shines  through  a  low  opening  and 
gives  promise  of  a  better  day.  The  peculiar 
liquid  effect  of  the  setting  sun  is  wonderfully 
rendered,  and  the  rich  browns  and  russets  of 
the  foliage  lead  up,  as  it  were,  like  a  flight  of 
steps  to  this  final  glory, — a  restful  and  impres 
sive  scene.  This  landscape  is  not  painted  in  the 
smooth  manner  of  the  "Two  Oaks,"  but  with 
soft,  flakelike  touches  which  slightly  remind 
one  of  Murillo.  Its  coloring  has  the  peculiarity 
that  artificial  light  wholly  changes  its  charac 
ter,  whereas  Cranch's  paintings,  previous  to 
1875,  appear  much  the  same  by  electric  light 
that  they  do  in  daytime.  It  is  called  the  ' '  Home 
of  the  Wood  Duck." 


CRANCH  129 

Between  1870  and  1880  he  published  a  num 
ber  of  poems  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  as  well  as 
a  longer  piece  called  ' i  Satan, ' '  for  which  it  was 
said  by  a  certain  wit  that  he  received  the  devil's 
pay.  His  two  books  for  young  folks,  "The 
Last  of  the  Huggermuggers "  and  "Kobbol- 
tozo, ' '  ought  not  to  be  overlooked,  for  the  illus 
trations  in  them  are  the  only  remains  we  have 
of  his  rare  pencil  drawings,  as  good,  if  not  bet 
ter,  than  Thackeray's  drawings. 

It  is  likely  that  the  parents  read  these  stories 
with  more  pleasure  than  their  children;  for 
they  not  only  contain  a  deal  of  fine  wit,  but 
there  is  a  moral  allegory  running  through  them 
both.  An  American  vessel  is  wrecked  on  a 
strange  island,  and  the  sailors  who  have  escaped 
death  are  astonished  at  the  gigantic  proportions 
of  the  sand  and  the  sea-shells,  and  of  the  bushes 
by  the  shore.  Presently  the  Huggermuggers 
appear,  and  the  American  mariners  in  terror 
run  to  hide  themselves ;  but  they  soon  find  that 
these  giants  are  the  kindliest  of  human  beings. 
There  are  also  dwarfs  on  the  island,  larger  than 
ordinary  men,  but  small  compared  with  the 
Huggermuggers.  They  are  disagreeable,  en 
vious  creatures,  who  wish  to  ruin  the  giants  in 
order  to  have  the  island  more  entirely  to  them 
selves.  Having  accomplished  this  in  a  some 
what  mysterious  manner,  they  attempted  to 
iioprove  their  own  stature  by  eating  a  certain 


130  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

shell-fish  which  had  been  the  favorite  food  of 
the  giants;  but  the  shell-fish  had  also  disap 
peared  with  the  Huggernmggers,  and  after 
searching  for  it  a  long  time  they  finally  sum 
moned  the  Mer-King,  the  genius  of  the  sea,  who 
raised  his  head  above  the  water  in  a  secluded 
cove  and  spoke  these  verses: 

"  Not  in  the  Ocean  deep  and  clear, 
Not  on  the  Land  so  broad  and  fair, 
Not  in  the  regions  of  boundless  Air, 
Not  in  the  Fire's  burning  sphere — 
'Tis  not  here — 'tis  not  there: 
Ye  may  seek  it  everywhere. 
He  that  is  a  dwarf  in  spirit 
Never  shall  the  isle  inherit. 
Hearts  that  grow  'mid  daily  cares 
Come  to  greatness  unawares; 
Noble  souls  alone  may  know 
How  the  giants  live  and  grow." 

This  is  an  allegory,  but  of  very  general  appli 
cation;  and  it  has  more  especially  a  political 
application.  Cranch  may  have  intended  it  to 
illustrate  the  life  of  Alexander  Hamilton. 

Cranch  was  not  a  giant  himself,  but  he  knew 
how  to  distinguish  true  greatness  from  the  spu 
rious  commodity.  Emerson  considered  his  va 
ried  accomplishments  his  worst  enemy ;  but  that 
depends  on  how  you  choose  to  look  at  it.  It  is 
probable  enough  that  if  Cranch  had  followed  out 
a  single  pursuit  to  its  perfection,  and  if  he  had 


CRANCH  131 

not  lived  so  many  years  in  Europe,  lie  would 
have  been  a  more  celebrated  man;  but  Cranch 
did  not  care  for  celebrity.  He  was  content  to 
live  and  to  let  live.  Men  of  great  force,  like 
Macaulay  and  Emerson,  who  impress  their  per 
sonality  on  the  times  in  which  they  live,  com 
municate  evil  as  well  as  good;  but  Cranch  had 
no  desire  to  influence  his  fellow  men,  and  for 
this  reason  his  influence  was  of  a  purer  quality. 
It  was  like  the  art  of  Albert  Diirer.  No  one 
could  conceive  of  Cranch 's  injuring  anybody; 
and  if  all  men  were  like  him  there  would  be  no 
more  wars,  no  need  of  revolutions.  Force, 
however,  is  necessary  to  combat  the  evil  that 
is  already  established. 

He  died  at  his  house  on  Ellery  Street  Janu 
ary  20,  1890,  as  gently  and  peacefully  as  he  had 
lived.  There  is  an  excellent  portrait  of  him  by 
Duveneck  in  the  rooms  of  the  University  Club, 
at  Boston ;  but  the  sketch  of  his  life,  by  George 
William  Curtis,  was  refused  on  the  ground  that 
he  was  an  Emersonian.  The  same  objection 
might  have  been  raised  against  Lowell,  or  Cur 
tis  himself  with  equally  good  reason. 


T.  G.  APPLETON. 

Thomas  G.  Appleton,  universally  known  as 
"Tom"  Appleton,  was  a  notable  figure  during 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  not  only  in  Bos 
ton  and  Cambridge,  but  in  Paris,  Eome,  Flor 
ence,  and  other  European  cities.  He  was  de 
scended  from  one  of  the  oldest  and  wealthiest 
families  of  Boston,  and  graduated  from  Har 
vard  in  1831,  together  with  Wendell  Phillips 
and  George  Lothrop  Motley.  He  was  not  dis 
tinguished  in  college  for  his  scholarship,  but 
rather  as  a  wit,  a  bon  vivant,  and  a  good  fellow. 
Yet  his  companions  looked  upon  him  as  a  strong 
character  and  much  above  the  average  in  intel 
lect.  After  taking  his  degree  of  Bachelor  of 
Arts  he  went  through  the  Law  School,  and  at 
tempted  to  practise  that  profession  in  Boston. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  year,  happening  to  meet 
Wendell  Phillips  on  the  sidewalk,  the  latter  in 
quired  if  he  had  any  clients.  He  had  not; 
neither  had  Phillips,  and  they  both  agreed  that 
waiting  for  fortune  in  the  legal  profession  was 
wearisome  business.  They  were  both  well 
adapted  to  it,  and  the  only  reason  for  their  ill 
success  would  seem  to  have  been  that  they  be 
longed  to  wealthy  and  rather  aristocratic  fam 
ilies,  amongst  whom  there  is  little  litigation. 

At  the  same  time  Sumner  was  laying  the  f  oun- 

132 


T.  G.  APPLETON  133 

dation  by  hard  study  for  Ms  future  distinction 
as  a  legal  authority,  and  Motley  was  discussing 
Goethe  and  Kant  with  the  youthful  Bismarck 
in  Berlin.  Wendell  Phillips  soon  gave  up  his 
profession  to  become  an  orator  in  the  anti-slav 
ery  cause;  and  Tom  Appleton  went  to  Borne 
and  took  lessons  in  oil  painting. 

Nothing  can  be  more  superficial  than  to  pre 
sume  that  young  men  who  write  verses  or  study 
painting  think  themselves  geniuses.  A  man 
may  have  a  genius  for  mechanics ;  and  in  most 
instances  men  and  women  are  attracted  to  the 
arts  from  the  elevating  character  of  the  occupa 
tion.  It  is  not  likely  that  Tom  Appleton  con 
sidered  himself  a  genius,  for  although  he  had 
plenty  of  self-confidence,  his  opinion  of  himself 
was  always  a  modest  one.  He  painted  the  por 
traits  of  some  of  his  friends,  but  he  never  fairly 
made  a  profession  of  it.  However,  he  learned 
the  mechanism  of  pictorial  art  in  this  way,  and 
soon  became  one  of  the  best  connoisseurs  of  his 
time. 

His  finest  enjoyment  was  to  meet  with  some 
person,  especially  a  stranger,  with  whom  he 
could  discuss  the  celebrated  works  in  the  gal 
leries  of  Europe.  He  soon  became  known  as  a 
man  who  had  something  to  say,  and  who  knew 
how  to  say  it.  He  told  the  Italian  picture-deal 
ers  to  cheat  him  as  much  as  they  could,  and  he 
gave  amusing  accounts  of  their  various  at 
tempts  to  do  this.  He  knew  more  than  they  did. 


134  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

After  this  time  he  lived  as  much  in  Europe 
as  he  did  in  America.  Before  1860  he  had 
crossed  the  Atlantic  nearly  forty  times.  The 
marriage  of  his  sister  to  Henry  W.  Longfellow 
was  of  great  advantage  to  him,  for  through 
Longfellow  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  many 
celebrated  persons  whom  he  would  not  other 
wise  have  known,  and  being  always  equal  to 
such  occasions  he  retained  their  respect  and 
good  will.  One  might  also  say,  "What  could 
Longfellow  have  done  without  him?"  His  con 
versation  was  never  forced,  and  the  wit,  for 
which  he  became  as  much  distinguished  in  so 
cial  life  as  Lowell  or  Holmes,  was  never  pre 
meditated,  often  making  its  appearance  on  un 
expected  occasions  to  refresh  his  hearers  with 
its  sparkle  and  originality. 

In  the  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table" 
Doctor  Holmes  quotes  this  saying  by  the  "wit 
tiest  of  men,"  that  "good  Americans,  when 
they  die,  go  to  Paris."  Now  this  wittiest  of 
men  was  Tom  Appleton,  as  many  of  us  knew 
at  that  time.  He  said  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci's 
1  i  Last  Supper ' '  that  it  probably  had  faded  out 
from  being  stared  at  by  sightseers,  and  that 
the  same  thing  might  have  happened  to  the 
Sistine  Madonna  if  it  had  not  been  put  under 
glass, — these  being  the  two  most  popular  paint 
ings  in  Europe.  His  fund  of  anecdotes  was 
inexhaustible. 


T.  G.  APPLETON  135 

Earlier  in  life  he  was  occasionally  given  to 
practical  jokes.  A  woman  who  kept  a  thread 
and  needle  store  in  Boston  was  supposed  to 
have  committed  murder,  and  was  tried  for  it 
but  acquitted.  One  day,  as  Appleton  was  going 
by  her  place  of  business  with  a  friend  he  said : 
"Come  in  here  with  me;  I  want  to  see  how 
that  woman  looks. "  Then  surveying  the  prem 
ises,  as  if  he  wished  to  find  something  to  pur 
chase,  he  asked  her  if  she  had  any  "  galluses " 
for  sale, — gallus  being  a  shop-boy's  term  at  the 
time  for  suspenders. 

When  the  Art  Museum  in  Boston  was  first 
built  its  odd  appearance  attracted  very  general 
attention,  and  some  one  asked  Tom  Appleton 
what  he  thought  of  it.  "Well,"  he  said,  "I 
have  heard  that  architecture  is  a  kind  of  frozen 
music,  and  if  so  I  should  call  the  Art  Museum 
frozen  'Yankee  Doodle/  " 

Thomas  G.  Appleton  was  no  dilettante;  his 
interest  in  the  subject  was  serious  and  abiding. 
He  did  not  wear  his  art  as  he  did  his  gloves,  nor 
did  he  turn  it  into  an  intellectual  abstraction. 
There  was  nothing  he  disliked  more  than  the 
kind  of  pretension  which  tries  to  make  a  knowl 
edge  of  art  a  vehicle  for  self-importance. 
"Who,"  he  said,  "ought  not  to  feel  humble 
before  a  painting  of  Titian's  or  Correggio's? 
It  is  only  when  we  feel  so  that  we  can  appre 
ciate  a  great  work  of  art."  He  believed  that 


136  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

an  important  moral  lesson  could  be  inculcated 
by  a  picture  as  well  as  by  a  poem, — even  by  a 
realistic  Dutch  painting.  "  Women  worship  the 
Venus  of  Milo  now, ' '  he  said,  1 1  just  as  they  did 
in  ancient  Greece,  and  it  is  good  for  them, 
too."  He  respected  William  Morris  Hunt 
as  the  best  American  painter  of  his  time,  but 
thought  he  would  be  a  better  painter  if  he  were 
not  so  proud.  Pride  leads  to  arrogance,  and 
arrogance  is  blinding. 

After  he  came  into  possession  of  his  inheri 
tance  he  showed  that  he  could  make  a  good  use 
of  money.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  purchase 
a  set  of  engravings  in  the  Vatican,  valued  at  ten 
thousand  dollars,  for  the  Boston  Public  Li 
brary.  "I  was  not  such  a  fool  as  to  pay  that 
sum  for  it,  though,"  he  remarked  to  Rev.  Sam 
uel  Longfellow.  He  visited  the  studios  of 
struggling  artists  in  Eome  and  Boston,  gave 
them  advice  and  encouragement, — made  pur 
chases  himself,  sometimes,  and  advised  his 
friends  to  purchase  when  he  found  a  painting 
that  was  really  excellent.  He  also  purchased 
some  valuable  old  paintings  to  adorn  his  house 
on  Commonwealth  Avenue. 

He  placed  two  of  these  at  one  time  on  free  ex 
hibition  at  Doll's  picture-store,  and  going  into 
the  rooms  where  they  hung,  I  found  Tom  Ap- 
pleton  explaining  their  merits  to  a  group  of 
remarkably  pretty  school-girls. 


T.  G.  APPLETON  137 

At  the  same  moment,  another  gentleman  who 
knew  Mr.  Appleton  entered,  and  said,  "Ah!  a 
Palma  Vecio,  Mr.  Appleton;  how  delightful! 
It  is  a  Palma,  is  it  not?" 

"That,"  replied  Mr.  Appleton,  "is  probably 
a  Palma;  but  what  do  you  say  to  this,  which  I 
consider  a  much  better  picture?"  The  gentle 
man  did  not  know;  but  it  looked  like  Venetian 
coloring. 

"Quite  right,"  said  Mr.  Appleton;  "I 
bought  it  at  the  sale  of  a  private  collection  in 
Eome,  and  it  was  catalogued  as  a  Tintoretto, 
but  I  said,  'No,  Bassano;'  and  it  is  the  best 
Bassano  I  ever  saw.  The  Italians  call  it 
'II  Coconotte.'  " 

Mr.  Appleton  had  no  intention  of  palming  off 
doubtful  paintings  on  his  friends  or  the  public ; 
but  in  regard  to  "//  Coconotte"  he  was  confi 
dent  of  its  true  value,  and  rightly  so.  The 
painting,  so  called  from  a  head  in  the  group 
covered  very  thinly  with  hair,  was  the  pride  of 
his  collection  and  one  of  the  best  of  Bassano 's 
works.  The  other  painting  looked  to  me  like  a 
Palma,  and  I  have  always  supposed  that  it  was 
one. 

After  this  Mr.  Appleton  branched  off  on  to 
an  interesting  anecdote  concerning  an  Italian 
cicerone,  and  finally  left  his  audience  as  well 
entertained  as  if  they  had  been  to  the  theatre. 

In  1871  he  published  a  volume  of  poems  for 


138  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

private  circulation,  in  which  there  were  a  num 
ber  of  excellent  pieces,  and  especially  two  which 
deserve  a  place  in  any  choice  collection  of 
American  poetry.  One  is  called  the  "Whip  of 
the  Sky"  and  relates  to  a  subject  which  Mr. 
Appleton  often  dwelt  upon, — the  unnecessary 
haste  and  restlessness  of  American  life,  and  is 
given  here  for  the  wider  circulation  which  it 
amply  deserves: 

THE  WHIP  OF  THE  SKY. 

Weary  with  travel,  charmed  with  home, 
The  youth  salutes  New  England's  air; 
Nor  notes,  within  the  azure  dome, 
A  vigilant,  menacing  figure  there, 
Whose  thonged  hand  swings 
A  whip  which  sings: 

"  Step,  step,  step,"  sings  the  whip  of  the  sky : 
"  Hurry  up,  move  along,  you  can  if  you  try !" 

Remembering  Como's  languid  side, 

Where,  pulsing  from  the  citron  deep, 
The  nightingale's  aerial  tide 
Floats  through  the  day,  repose  and  sleep, 
Reclined  in  groves, — 
A  voice  reproves. 

"  Step,  step,  step,"  cracks  the  whip  of  the  sky : 
"  Hurry  up,  jump  along,  rest  when  you  die !" 

Slave  of  electric  will,  which  strips 

From  him  the  bliss  of  easeful  hours; 
And  bids,  as  from  a  tyrant's  lips, 

Rest,  quiet,  fly,  as  useless  flowers, 


T.  G.  APPLETON  139 

He  wings  his  heart 

To  make  him  smart. 

"  Step,  step,  step,"  snaps  the  whip  of  the  sky : 
"  Hurry  up,  race  along,  rest  when  you  die  I" 

He  maddens  in  the  breathless  race, 

Nor  misses  station,  power  or  pelf; 
And  only  loses  in  the  chase 

The  hunted  lord  of  all,— himself . 
His  gain  is  loss, 
His  treasure  dross. 

"  Step,  step,  step,"  mocks  the  whip  of  the  sky, 
"  Hurry  up,  limp  along,  rest  when  you  die !" 

With  care  he  burthens  all  his  soul; 

Heaped  ingots  curve  his  willing  back; 
Submissive  to  that  fierce  control, 
He  needs  at  last  the  sky-whip's  crack, 
Till  at  the  grave, 
No  more  a  slave, — 

"  Rest,  rest,  rest,"  sighs  the  whip  of  the  sky : 
"  Hurry  not,  haste  no  more,  rest  when  you  die !" 

Celia  Thaxter,  the  finest  of  poetic  readers, 
read  this  to  me  one  September  morning  at  the 
Isles  of  Shoals,  and  at  the  conclusion  she  re 
marked:  "If  that  could  only  be  read  every 
year  in  our  public  schools  it  might  do  the 
American  people  some  good." 

As  compared  with  this,  the  sonnet  on  Pompeii 
has  the  effect  of  a  strong  complementary  color, 
— for  instance,  like  orange  against  dark  blue. 
It  echoes  the  pathetic  reverie  that  we  feel  on 


140  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

beholding  the  monuments  of  the  mighty  past. 
It  contains  not  the  pathos  of  yesterday,  nor  of 
a  hundred  years  ago,  but  as  Emerson  says,  "of 
the  time  out  of  mind." 

POMPEII. 

The  silence  there  was  what  most  haunted  me. 

Long,  speechless  streets,  whose  stepping-stones  invite 

Feet  which  shall  never  come;   to  left  and  right 

Gay  colonnades  and  courts, — beyond,  the  glee, 

Heartless,  of  that  forgetful  Pagan  sea. 

O'er  roofless  homes  and  waiting  streets,  the  light 

Lies  with  a  pathos  sorrowfuler  than  night. 

Fancy  forbids  this  doom  of  Life  with  Death 

Wedded;    and  with  a  wand  restores  the  Life. 

The  jostling  throngs  swarm,  animate,  beneath 

The  open  shops,  and  all  the  tropic  strife 

Of  voices,  Roman,  Greek,  Barbarian,  mix.      The  wreath 

Indolent  hangs  on  far  Vesuvius's  crest; 

And  beyond  the  glowing  town,  and  guiltless  sea,  sweet  rest. 

Tom  Appleton  was  greatly  interested  in  the 
performances  of  the  spiritualists,  trance  me 
diums,  and  other  persons  pretending  to  super 
natural  powers.  How  far  he  believed  in  this 
occult  science  can  now  only  be  conjectured,  but 
he  was  not  a  man  to  be  easily  played  upon.  He 
thought  at  least  that  there  was  more  in  it  than 
was  dreamed  of  by  philosophers.  When  the 
Longfellow  party  was  at  Florence  in  April, 
1869,  Prince  George  of  Hanover,  recently 
driven  from  his  kingdom  by  Bismarck,  called  to 


T.  G.  APPLETON  141 

see  the  poet,  and  finding  that  he  had  gone  out, 
was  entertained  by  Mr.  Appleton  with  some 
remarkable  stories  of  hypnotic  and  spiritual 
istic  performances.  The  prince,  who  was  a 
most  amiable  looking  young  German,  was  evi 
dently  very  much  interested. 

Deafness  came  upon  Mr.  Appleton  in  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  though  not  so  as  to  prevent  his 
enjoying  the  society  of  those  who  had  clear 
voices  and  who  spoke  distinctly.  When  one  of 
his  friends  suggested  that  the  trouble  might  be 
wax  in  his  ears,  he  shook  his  head  sadly  and 
said:  "Oh  no:  not  wax,  but  wane.19 

He  was  finally  taken  ill  while  all  alone  in  New 
York  City,  and  the  Longfellows  were  tele 
graphed  for.  When  one  of  his  relatives 
came  to  him  he  spoke  of  his  malady  in  a 
stoically  humorous  manner;  and  his  last 
words  were  when  he  was  dying:  "How  in 
teresting  this  all  is! "  A  man  never  left  this 
world  with  a  more  perfect  faith  in  immortality ! 


DOCTOR  HOLMES. 

I  have  often  been  inside  the  old  Holmes  house 
in  Cambridge.  It  served  as  a  boarding-house 
during  our  college  days,  but  afterwards  Pro 
fessor  James  B.  Thayer  rented  it  for  a  term  of 
years,  until  it  was  finally  swept  away  like  chaff 
by  President  Eliot 's  broom  of  reform.  The 
popular  notion  that  it  was  a  quaint-looking 
old  mansion  of  the  eighteenth  century,  which 
seems  to  have  been  encouraged  by  Doctor 
Holmes  himself,  is  a  misconception.  It  was  a 
two-and-a-half  story,  low-studied  house,  such  as 
were  built  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century, 
with  a  roof  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees  and 
a  two-story  ell  on  the  right  side  of  the  front 
door.  Doctor  Holmes  says : 

"  Gambrel,  gambrel ;    let  me  beg 
You  will  look  at  a  horse's  hinder  leg. 
First  great  angle  above  the  hoof, — 
That  is  the  gambrel;  hence  gambrel  roof." 

Now,  any  one  who  looks  carefully  at  the  pic 
ture  of  the  old  Holmes  house,  in  Morse's  biog 
raphy  of  the  Doctor,  will  perceive  that  this  was 
not  the  style  of  roof  which  the  house  had, — at 
least,  in  its  later  years. 

Doctor  Holmes  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1829 

142 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  143 

at  the  age  of  twenty.  His  class  has  been  a  cele 
brated  one  in  Boston,  and  there  were  certainly 
some  good  men  in  it, — especially  Benjamin 
Pierce  and  James  Freeman  Clarke, — but  I 
think  it  was  Doctor  Holmes 's  class-poems  that 
gave  it  its  chief  celebrity,  which,  after  all, 
means  that  it  was  a  good  deal  talked  about.  In 
one  of  these  he  said : 

"No  wonder  the  tutor  can't  sleep  in  his  bed 
With  two  twenty-niners  over  his  head." 

He  was  said  to  have  composed  twenty-nine 
poems  for  his  class,  and  then  declared  that  he 
had  reached  the  proper  limit, — that  it  would  not 
be  prudent  to  go  beyond  the  magical  number. 
It  was  not  a  dissipated  class,  but  one  with  a 
good  deal  of  life  in  it,  much  given  to  late  hours 
and  jokes,  practical  and  unpractical.  The  Doc 
tor  himself  is  mysteriously  silent  concerning 
his  college  course,  and  so  are  his  biographers; 
but  we  may  surmise  that  it  was  not  very  differ 
ent  in  general  tenor  from  Lowell's;  although 
his  Yankee  shrewdness  would  seem  to  have  pre 
served  him  from  serious  catastrophes. 

In  the  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table" 
Doctor  Holmes  mentions  an  early  acquaintance 
with  Margaret  Fuller,  which  is  not  referred  to 
by  Mr.  Morse,  but  must  have  arisen  either  at 
Mrs.  Prentiss's  Boston  school  or  at  the  Cam- 
bridgeport  school  which  young  Oliver  after- 


144  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

wards  attended.  Even  at  that  age  he  recog 
nized  Margaret's  intellectual  gifts,  and  he  was 
not  a  little  emulous  of  her ;  for  he  fancied  that 
he  "had  also  drawn  a  small  prize  in  the  great 
literary  lottery."  He  looked  into  one  of  her 
compositions,  which  was  lying  on  the  teacher's 
desk,  and  felt  quite  crest-fallen  by  discover 
ing  a  word  in  it  which  he  did  not  know  the 
meaning  of.  This  word  was  trite;  and  it  may 
be  suspected  that  a  good  many  use  it  without 
being  aware  of  its  proper  significance. 

Margaret  Fuller  rose  to  celebrity  with  the 
spontaneity  of  true  genius,  and  left  her  name 
high  upon  the  natural  bridge  of  American  liter 
ature.  Holmes  did  not  come  before  the  public 
until  years  after  her  death;  and  then  perhaps 
it  might  not  have  happened  but  for  James  Bus- 
sell  Lowell  and  the  Atlantic.  He  was  a  bright 
man,  and  possessed  a  peculiar  mental  quality  of 
his  own;  but  as  we  think  of  him  now  we  can 
hardly  call  him  a  genius.  He  would  evidently 
have  liked  in  his  youth  to  have  made  a  profes 
sion  of  literature;  but  his  verse  lacked  the 
charm  and  universality  which  made  Longfellow 
popular  so  readily;  nor  did  he  possess  the 
daring  spirit  of  innovation  with  which  Emer 
son  startled  and  convinced  his  contemporaries. 
He  first  tried  the  law,  and  as  that  did  not  suit 
his  taste  he  fell  into  medicine,  but  evidently 
without  any  natural  bent  or  inclination  for  the 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  145 

profession.  He  was  fond  of  the  university,  and 
when,  after  a  temporary  professorship  at 
Dartmouth  he  was  appointed  lecturer  on  anat 
omy  at  the  Harvard  Medical-School,  his  friends 
realized  that  he  had  found  his  right  position. 

Lecturing  on  anatomy  is  a  routine,  but  by  no 
means  a  sinecure.  It  requires  a  clearness  and 
accuracy  of  statement  which  might  be  compared 
to  the  work  of  an  optician.  Some  idea  of  it  can 
be  derived  from  the  fact  that  there  may  be  eight 
or  ten  points  to  a  human  bone,  each  of  which 
has  a  name  of  eight  or  ten  syllables, — only  to 
be  acquired  by  the  hardest  study.  Doctor 
Holmes 's  lecturing  manner  was  incisive  and 
sometimes  pungent,  like  his  conversation,  but 
always  good-humored  and  well  calculated  to 
make  an  impression  even  on  the  most  lymphatic 
temperaments.  While  it  may  be  said  that  oth 
ers  might  have  done  it  as  well,  it  is  doubtful  if 
he  could  have  been  excelled  in  his  own  specialty. 
His  ready  fund  of  wit  often  served  to  revive 
the  drooping  spirits  of  his  audience,  and  many 
of  his  jests  have  become  a  kind  of  legendary 
lore  at  the  Medical-School.  Most  of  them,  how 
ever,  were  of  a  too  anatomical  character  to  be 
reproduced  in  print. 

So  the  years  rolled  over  Doctor  Holmes 's 
head;  living  quietly,  working  steadily,  and  ac 
cumulating  a  store  of  proverbial  wisdom  by  the 
way.  In  June,  1840,  he  married  Amelia  Lee 

10 


146  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Jackson,  of  Boston,  an  alliance  which  brought 
him  into  relationship  with  half  the  families  on 
Beacon  Street,  and  which  may  have  exercised  a 
determining  influence  on  the  future  course  of 
his  life.  Doctor  Holmes  was  always  liberally 
inclined,  and  ready  to  welcome  such  social  and 
political  improvements  as  time  might  bring ;  but 
he  never  joined  any  of  the  liberal  or  reforma 
tory  movements  of  his  time.  Certain  old 
friends  of  Emerson  affirmed,  when  Holmes 
published  his  biography  of  the  Concord  sage 
in  1885,  that  no  one  else  was  so  much  given 
to  jesting  as  Emerson  in  his  younger  days. 
This  may  have  been  true;  but  it  is  also  un 
deniable  that  Emerson  himself  had  changed 
much  during  that  time,  and  that  the  socialistic 
Emerson  of  1840  was  largely  a  different  per 
son  from  the  author  of  "Society  and  Solitude." 
Holmes  had  already  composed  one  of  the  fair 
est  tributes  to  Emerson's  intellectual  quality 
that  has  yet  been  written. 

"  He  seems  a  winged  Franklin,  heavenly  wise, 
Born  to  unlock  the  secrets  of  the  skies." 

Emerson  began  his  course  in  direct  apposition 
to  the  conventional  world ;  but  he  was  the  great 
magnet  of  the  age,  and  the  world  could  not  help 
being  attracted  by  him.  It  modified  its  course, 
and  Emerson  also  modified  his,  so  that  the  final 
reconciliation  might  take  place.  Meanwhile 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  147 

Doctor  Holmes  pursued  the  even  tenor  of  his 
way.  Concord  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
attractive  to  him.  He  had  a  brother,  John 
Holmes,  who  was  reputed  by  his  friends  to  be 
as  witty  as  the  "Autocrat"  himself,  but  who 
lived  a  quiet,  inconspicuous  life.  John  was  an 
intimate  friend  of  Hon.  E.  E.  Hoar  and  often 
went  to  Concord  to  visit  him ;  but  I  never  heard 
of  the  Doctor  being  seen  there,  though  it  may 
have  happened  before  my  time.  He  does  not 
speak  over-much  of  Emerson  in  his  letters,  and 
does  not  mention  Hawthorne,  Thoreau  or  Al- 
cott,  so  far  as  we  know,  at  all.  They  do  not 
appear  to  have  attracted  his  attention. 

We  are  indebted  to  Lowell  for  all  that  Doc 
tor  Holmes  has  given  us.  The  Doctor  was 
forty-eight  when  the  Atlantic  Monthly  appeared 
before  the  public,  and  according  to  his  own  con 
fession  he  had  long  since  given  up  hope  of  a 
literary  life.  We  hardly  know  another  instance 
like  it;  but  so  much  the  better  for  him.  He 
had  no  immature  efforts  of  early  life  to  regret ; 
and  when  the  cask  once  was  tapped,  the  old 
wine  came  forth  with  a  fine  bouquet.  When 
Phillips  &  Sampson  consulted  Lowell  in  re 
gard  to  the  editorship  of  the  Atlantic,  he  said 
at  once :  i  l  We  must  get  something  from  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes."  He  was  Lowell's  great  dis 
covery  and  proved  to  be  his  best  card, — a 
clear,  shining  light,  and  not  an  ignis  fatuus. 


148  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

When  the  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast 
Table"  first  appeared  few  were  in  the  secret 
of  its  authorship  and  everybody  asked :  '  *  Who 
is  this  new  luminary ?"  It  was  exactly  what 
the  more  intelligent  public  wanted,  and  Holmes 
jumped  at  once  into  the  position  in  literature 
which  he  has  held  ever  since.  Eeaders  were  de 
lighted  with  his  wit,  surprised  at  his  originality 
and  impressed  by  his  proverbial  wisdom.  It 
was  the  advent  of  a  sound,  healthy  intelligence, 
not  unlike  that  of  President  Lincoln,  which 
could  deal  with  common-place  subjects  in  a  sig 
nificant  and  characteristic  manner.  The  land 
lady's  daughter,  the  schoolmistress,  little  Bos 
ton,  and  the  young  man  called  John,  are  as  real 
and  tangible  as  the  dramatis  personce  in  one  of 
Moliere's  plays.  They  seem  more  real  to  us 
than  many  of  the  distinguished  men  and  women 
whom  we  read  of  in  the  newspapers. 

Doctor  Holmes  is  the  American  Sterne.  He 
did  not  seek  a  vehicle  for  his  wit  in  the  oddi 
ties  and  mishaps  of  English  middle-class  do 
mestic  life,  but  in  the  contrasts  and  incongrui 
ties  of  a  Boston  boarding-house.  He  informs 
us  at  the  outset  that  he  much  prefers  a  family 
with  an  ancestry — one  that  has  had  a  judge  or 
a  governor  in  it,  with  old  family  portraits,  old 
books  and  claw-footed  furniture;  but  if  Doc 
tor  Holmes  had  depended  on  such  society  for 
his  material  he  would  hardly  have  interested 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  149 

the  public  whom  he  addressed.  One  of  Goethe's 
critics  complained  that  the  class  of  persons  he 
had  introduced  in  "Wilhelm  Meister"  did  not 
belong  to  good  society ;  and  to  this  the  ' '  aristo 
cratic  "  poet  replied:  "  I  have  often  been  in 
society  called  good,  from  which  I  have  not  been 
able  to  obtain  an  idea  for  the  shortest  poem.77 

So  it  is  always :  the  interesting  person  is  the 
one  who  struggles.  After  the  struggle  is  over, 
and  prosperity  commences,  the  moral  ends,— 
young  Corey  and  his  bride  go  off  to  Mexico. 
The  lives  of  families  are  represented  by  those 
of  its  prominent  individuals.  The  ambitious 
son  of  an  old  and  wealthy  family  makes  a  new 
departure  from  former  precedents,  thus  cre 
ating  a  fresh  struggle  for  himself,  and  becomes 
an  orator,  like  Wendell  Philips,  or  a  scientist, 
like  Darwin. 

In  the  "Autocrat"  we  recognize  the  dingy 
wall-paper  of  the  dining-room,  the  well-worn 
furniture,  the  cracked  water-pitcher,  and  the 
slight  aroma  of  previous  repasts ;  but  we  soon 
forget  this  unattractive  background,  for  the 
scene  is  full  of  genuine  human  life.  The  men 
and  women  who  congregate  there  appear  for 
what  they  really  are.  They  wear  no  mental 
masks  and  other  disguises  like  the  people  we 
meet  at  fashionable  entertainments;  and  each 
acts  himself  or  herself.  Boarding-houses,  san 
itariums,  and  sea  voyages  are  the  places  to 


150  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

study  human  nature.  When  a  man  is  half  sea 
sick  the  old  original  Adam  shows  forth  in  him 
through  all  the  wrappings  of  education,  social 
restraint,  imitation  and  attempts  at  self-im 
provement,  with  which  he  has  covered  it  over 
for  so  many  years.  Once  on  a  Cunard  steam 
ship  I  heard  an  architect  from  San  Francisco 
tell  the  story  of  the  hoop-snake,  which  takes  its 
tail  in  its  teeth  and  rolls  over  the  prairies  at  a 
speed  equal  to  any  express  train.  He  evidently 
believed  the  story  himself,  and  as  I  looked 
round  on  the  company  I  saw  that  they  all  be 
lieved  it,  too,  excepting  Captain  Martyn,  who 
gave  me  a  sly  look  from  the  corner  of  his  eye. 
"  Eocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep,"  they  had 
become  like  children  again,  and  were  ready  to 
credit  anything  that  was  told  in  a  confident 
manner.  But  Doctor  Holmes 's  digressions  are 
infectious. 

The  "Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast  Table "  is 
an  irregular  panorama  of  human  life  without 
either  a  definite  beginning  or  end, — unless  the 
autocrat's  offering  himself  to  the  schoolmis 
tress  (an  incident  which  only  took  place  on 
paper)  can  be  considered  so;  but  it  is  by  no 
means  a  patchwork.  He  talks  of  horse-racing, 
the  Millerites,  elm  trees,  Doctor  Johnson,  the 
composition  of  poetry  and  much  else ;  but  these 
subjects  are  introduced  and  treated  with  an 
adroitness  that  amounts  to  consummate  art. 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  151 

He  is  always  at  the  boarding-house,  and  if  his 
remarks  sometimes  shoot  over  the  heads  of 
his  auditors,  this  is  only  because  he  intends 
that  they  should.  The  first  ten  or  fifteen 
pages  of  the  "  Autocrat "  are  written  in  such 
a  cold,  formal  and  pedantic  manner  that  the 
wonder  is  that  Lowell  should  have  published 
it.  After  that  the  style  suddenly  changes  and 
the  Doctor  becomes  himself.  It  is  like  a  con 
vention  call  which  ends  in  a  sympathetic  con 
versation. 

Doctor  Holmes 's  humor  permeates  every  sen 
tence  that  he  wrote.  Even  in  his  most  serious 
moods  we  meet  with  it  in  a  peculiar  phrase,  or 
the  use  of  some  exceptional  word. 

Now  and  then  his  wit  is  very  brilliant,  light 
ing  up  its  surroundings  like  the  sudden  appear 
ance  of  a  meteor.  The  essence  of  humor  con 
sists  in  a  contrast  which  places  the  object  or 
person  compared  at  a  disadvantage.  If  the 
contrast  is  a  dignified  one  we  have  high  com 
edy  ;  but  if  the  reverse,  low  comedy.  Some  of 
Holmes 's  comparisons  make  the  reader  laugh 
out  aloud.  He  says  that  a  tedious  preacher  or 
lecturer,  with  an  alert  listener  in  the  audience, 
resembles  a  crow  followed  by  a  king-bird, — a 
spectacle  which  of  itself  is  enough  to  make  one 
smile ;  and  as  for  an  elevated  comparison,  what 
could  be  more  so,  unless  we  were  to  seek  one  in 
the  moon.  There  is  a  threefold  wit  in  it;  but 


152  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  full  force  of  this  can  only  be  appreciated 
in  the  original  text. 

Nature  commonly  sets  her  own  stamp  on  the 
face  of  a  humorist.  The  long  pointed  nose  of 
Cervantes  is  indicative  of  immeasurable  fun, 
and  there  have  been  many  similar  noses  on  the 
faces  of  less  distinguished  wits.  Doctor  Holmes 
ridiculed  phrenology  as  an  attempt  to  estimate 
the  money  in  a  safe  by  the  knobs  on  the  outside, 
but  he  evidently  was  a  believer  in  physiognomy, 
and  he  exemplified  this  in  his  own  case.  His 
face  had  a  comical  expression  from  boyhood; 
its  profile  reminded  one  of  those  prehistoric 
images  which  Di  Cesnola  brought  from  Cyprus. 
As  if  he  were  conscious  of  this  he  asserted  his 
dignity  in  a  more  decided  manner  than  a  man 
usually  does  who  is  confident  of  the  respect  of 
those  about  him.  Thus  he  acquired  a  style  of 
his  own,  different  from  that  of  any  other  person 
in  Boston.  He  was  not  a  man  to  be  treated  with 
disrespect  or  undue  familiarity. 

A  medical  student  named  Holyoke  once  had 
occasion  to  call  on  him,  and  as  soon  as  he 
had  introduced  himself  Doctor  Holmes  said: 
* '  There,  me  friend,  stand  there  and  let  me  take 
an  observation  of  you. ' '  He  then  fetched  an  old 
book  from  his  library  which  contained  a  por 
trait  of  Holyoke's  grandfather,  who  had  also 
been  a  physician.  He  compared  the  two  faces, 
saying:  " Forehead  much  the  same;  nose  not 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  153 

so  full ;  mouth  rather  more  feminine ;  chin  not 
quite  so  strong;  but  on  the  whole  a  very  good 
likeness,  and  I  have  no  doubt  you  will  make 
an  excellent  doctor. "  After  Holyoke  had  ex 
plained  his  business  Doctor  Holmes  finally 
said:  "I  liked  your  grandfather,  and  shall 
always  be  glad  to  see  you  here." 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  Jr.,  was  class  poet 
of  1861,  an  honor  which  pleased  his  father  very 
much.  Immediately  after  graduating  he  went 
to  the  war,  and  came  near  losing  his  life  at  the 
battle  of  Antietam.  A  rifle-ball  passed  through 
both  lungs,  and  narrowly  missed  his  heart. 
Alexander  Hamilton  died  of  exactly  such  a 
wound  in  seven  hours;  and  yet  in  three  days 
Captain  Holmes  was  able  to  write  to  his  father. 
The  Doctor  started  at  once  for  the  seat  of  war, 
and  met  with  quite  a  series  of  small  adventures 
which  he  afterwards  described  in  a  felicitous  ar 
ticle  in  the  Atlantic,  called  "My  Hunt  after  the 
Captain.'7  His  friend,  Dr.  Henry  P.  Bow- 
ditch,  lost  his  son  in  the  same  battle,  and  when 
they  met  at  the  railway  depot  Holmes  said :  ' i  I 
would  give  my  house  to  have  your  fortune  like 
mine. ' ' 

In  a  letter  to  Motley  dated  February  3,  1862, 
he  says : 

"I  was  at  a  dinner  at  Parker's  the  other  day 
where  Governor  Andrew  and  Emerson,  and 
various  unknown  dingy-linened  friends  of 


154  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

progress  met  to  hear  Mr.  Conway,  the  not 
unfamous  Unitarian  minister  of  Washington, 
—Virginia-born,  with  seventeen  secesh  cousins, 
fathers,  and  other  relatives, — tell  of  his  late 
experience  at  the  seat  of  Government.  He  is 
an  out-and-out  immediate  emancipationist,— 
believes  that  is  the  only  way  to  break  the 
strength  of  the  South;  that  the  black  man  is 
the  life  of  the  South;  that  they  dread  work 
above  all  things,  and  cling  to  the  slave  as  the 
drudge  that  makes  life  tolerable  to  them.  I 
do  not  know  if  his  opinion  is  worth  much." 

This  was  a  meeting  of  the  Bird  Club  which 
Doctor  Holmes  attended  and  the  dingy-linened 
friends  of  progress  were  such  men  as  Dr.  Sam 
uel  G.  Howe,  Governor  Washburn,  Governor 
Claflin,  Dr.  Estes  Howe,  and  Frank  B.  San- 
born.  It  has  always  been  a  trick  of  fashion 
able  society,  a  trick  as  old  as  the  age  of 
Pericles,  to  disparage  liberalism  by  accusing 
it  of  vulgarity;  but  we  regret  to  find  Doctor 
Holmes  falling  into  line  in  this  particular.  He 
always  speaks  of  Sumner  in  his  letters  with 
something  like  a  slur — not  to  Motley,  for  Mot 
ley  was  Sumner 's  friend,  but  to  others  who 
might  be  more  sympathetic.  This  did  not,  how 
ever,  prevent  him  from  going  to  Sumner  in 
1868  to  ask  a  favor  for  his  second  son,  who 
wanted  to  be  private  secretary  to  the  Senator 
and  learn  something  of  foreign  affairs.  Sum- 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  155 

ner  granted  the  request,  although  he  must  have 
been  aware  that  the  Doctor  was  not  over- 
friendly  to  him;  but  it  proved  an  unfortunate 
circumstance  for  Edward  J.  Holmes,  who  con 
tracted  malaria  in  Washington,  and  this  finally 
resulted  in  an  early  death. 

Why  is  it  that  members  of  the  medical  pro 
fession  should  take  an  exceptional  interest  in 
poisonous  reptiles?  Professor  Reichert  and 
Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell  spent  a  large  portion  of 
their  leisure  hours  for  several  years  in  experi 
menting  with  the  virus  of  rattlesnakes,  and  of 
the  Gila  monster,  without,  however,  quite  ex 
hausting  the  subject.  Doctor  Holmes  kept  a 
rattlesnake  in  a  cage  for  a  pet,  and  was  accus 
tomed  to  stir  it  up  with  an  ox-goad.  A  New 
York  doctor  lost  his  life  by  fooling  with  a 
poisonous  snake,  and  another  in  Liverpool 
frightened  a  whole  congregation  of  scientists 
with  two  torpid  rattlesnakes  which  suddenly 
came  to  life  on  the  president's  table.  Does  it 
arise  from  their  custom  of  dealing  with  deadly 
poisons,  or  is  it  because  they  officiate  as  the 
high  priests  of  mortality  ? 

Doctor  Holmes 's  "  Elsie  Venner"  was  one  of 
the  offshoots  of  this  peculiar  medical  interest, 
and  when  we  think  of  it  in  that  light  the  story 
seems  natural  enough.  The  idea  of  a  snaky 
woman  is  as  old  as  the  fable  of  Medusa.  I  read 
the  novel  when  I  was  fifteen,  and  it  made  as 


156  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 


decided  an  impression  on  me  as 
"  Pickwick. "  I  remember  especially  a  pro 
verbial  saying  of  the  old  doctor  who  serves  as 
the  presiding  genius  of  the  plot :  he  knew  ' '  the 
kind  of  people  who  are  never  sick  but  what  they 
are  going  to  die,  and  the  other  kind  who  never 
know  they  are  sick  until  they  are  dead."  If 
Doctor  Holmes  had  taken  this  as  his  text,  and 
written  a  novel  on  those  lines,  he  might  have 
created  a  work  of  far-reaching  importance.  He 
appears  to  have  known  very  little  concerning 
poisonous  reptiles ;  had  never  heard  of  the  ter 
rible  fer-de-lance,  which  infests  the  cane- 
swamps  of  Brazil — a  snake  ten  feet  in  length 
which  strikes  without  warning  and  straight  as 
a  fencer's  thrust.  But  "Elsie  Venner"  and 
Holmes 's  second  novel,  "The  Guardian  An 
gel,"  are,  to  use  Lowell's  expression  on  a 
different  subject: 

"As  full  of  wit,  gumption  and  good  Yankee  sense, 
As  there  are  mosses  on  an  old  stone  fence." 

In  the  autumn  of  1865  some  Harvard  stu 
dents,  radically  inclined,  obtained  possession  of 
a  religious  society  in  the  college  called  the 
Christian  Union,  revolutionized  it  and  changed 
its  name  to  the  Liberal  Fraternity.  They  then 
invited  Emerson,  Henry  James,  Sr.,  Doctor 
Holmes,  and  Colonel  Higginson  to  deliver  lec 
tures  in  Cambridge  under  their  auspices.  This 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  157 

was  a  pretty  bold  stroke,  but  Holmes  evidently 
liked  it.  He  said  to  the  committee  that  waited 
upon  him:  " What  is  your  rank  and  file!  How 
deep  do  you  go  down  into  the  class?"  He  also 
promised  to  lecture,  and  that  he  did  not  was 
more  the  fault  of  the  students  than  his  own.  He 
was  by  no  means  a  radical  in  religious  matters, 
but  he  hated  small  sectarian  differences — the 
substitution  of  dogma  for  true  religious  feel 
ing.  In  his  poem  at  the  grand  Harvard  celebra 
tion  in  1886  he  made  a  special  point  of  this 
principle : 

"  For  nothing  burns  with  such  amazing  speed 
As  the  dry  sticks  of  a  religious  creed." 

Creeds  are  necessary,  however,  and  an  enlight 
ened  education  teaches  us  not  to  value  them 
above  their  true  worth. 

In  1867  Doctor  Holmes  published  a  volume  of 
poetry  which  was  generally  well  received,  but 
was  criticised  in  the  Nation  with  needless  and 
unmerciful  severity.  Rev.  Edward  Everett 
Hale  and  other  friends  of  his  had  already  been 
attacked  in  the  same  periodical,  and  the  Doctor 
thought  he  knew  the  man  who  did  it;  but 
whether  he  was  right  in  his  conjecture  cannot 
be  affirmed.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  these 
diatribes  were  written  by  a  Harvard  professor 
who  owned  a  large  interest  in  the  Nation,  and 
who  was  obliged  to  go  to  Europe  the  following 
year  in  order  to  escape  the  odium  of  an  impru- 


158  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

dent  speech  at  a  public  dinner.  In  this  cri 
tique  Holmes 's  poetry  was  summed  up  under 
the  heading  of  "versified  misfortunes'7;  and 
Holmes  himself  wrote  to  Mrs.  Stowe  that  the 
object  of  the  writer  was  evidently  "to  injure 
at  any  rate,  and  to  wound  if  possible." 

It  was  certainly  contemptible  to  treat  a  man 
like  Doctor  Holmes  in  this  manner, — one  so  uni 
versally  kind  to  others,  and  whose  work  was 
always,  at  least,  above  mediocrity.  He  behaved 
in  a  dignified  manner  in  regard  to  it,  and  he 
made  no  attempt  at  self-justification,  although 
the  wound  was  evidently  long  in  healing.  What 
recourse  has  a  man  who  places  himself  before 
the  public  against  the  envenomed  shafts  of  an 
invisible  adversary  ?  Of  this  at  least  we  may  be 
satisfied,  that  whatever  is  extravagant  and 
overwrought  always  brings  its  own  reaction  in 
due  course;  and  Doctor  Holmes 's  reputation 
does  not  appear  to  have  suffered  permanently 
from  this  attack.  The  general  public,  especially 
the  republic  of  womankind,  forms  its  own  opin 
ion,  and  pays  slight  attention  to  literary  criti 
cisms  of  that  description. 

Holmes 's  poetry  rarely  rises  to  eloquence,  but 
neither  does  it  descend  to  sentimentality.  It  re 
sembles  the  man's  own  life,  in  which  there  were 
no  bold  endeavors,  great  feats,  or  desperate 
struggles ;  but  it  was  a  life  so  judicious,  health 
ful  and  highly  intellectual  that  we  cannot  help 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  159 

admiring  it.  "Dorothy  Q."  is  perhaps  the  best 
of  his  short  poems,  as  it  is  the  most  widely 
known.  The  name  itself  is  slightly  humorous, 
but  it  is  a  perfect  work  of  art,  and  the  line, 

"  Soft  and  low  is  a  maiden's  '  Yes/  " 

has  the  beautiful  hush  of  a  sanctuary  in  it.  A 
finer  verse  could  not  be  written.  Also  for  a 
comic  piece  nothing  equal  to  "The  Wonderful 
One-hoss  Shay"  has  appeared  since  Burns 's 
"Tarn  O'Shanter."  It  is  based  on  a  logical 
illusion  which  brings  it  down  to  recent  times, 
and  the  gravity  with  which  the  story  is  narrated 
makes  its  impossibility  all  the  more  amusing. 
The  building  of  the  chaise  is  described  with  a 
practical  accuracy  of  detail,  and  yet  with  a 
poetical  turn  to  every  verse : 

"  The  hubs  of  logs  from  the  '  Settler's  ellum',— 
Last  of  its  timber, — they  couldn't  sell  'em; 
Never  an  axe  had  seen  their  chips, 
And  the  wedges  flew  from  between  their  lips, 
Their  blunt  ends  frizzled  like  celery-tips"; 

I  believe  that  even  cultivated  readers  have 
found  more  real  satisfaction  in  the  "One-Hoss 
Shay"  than  in  many  a  more  celebrated  lyric. 

Doctor  Holmes  lived  amid  a  comparatively 
narrow  circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances.  He 
attended  the  Saturday  Club,  but  Lowell  appears 
to  have  been  the  only  member  of  it  with  whom 
he  was  on  confidential  terms.  He  was  rarely 


160  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

seen  or  heard  of  in  Longfellow's  house.  In  the 
winter  of  1878  he  met  Mrs.  L.  Maria  Child  for 
the  first  time  at  the  Chestnut  Street  Club.  It 
appears  that  she  did  not  catch  his  name  when  he 
was  introduced  to  her,  and  stranger  still  did  not 
recognize  his  face.  When  the  Doctor  inquired 
concerning  her  literary  occupation  she  replied 
that  she  considered  herself  too  old  to  drive  a 
quill  any  longer,  and  then  fortunately  added: 
"Now,  there  is  Doctor  Holmes,  I  think  he 
shows  his  customary  good  judgment  in  retiring 
from  the  literary  field  in  proper  season. ' '  What 
the  Doctor  thought  of  this  is  unknown,  but  he 
still  continued  to  write. 

At  the  age  of  seventy  his  alma  mater  con 
ferred  on  Doctor  Holmes  an  LL.D.,  and  this  was 
followed  soon  afterwards  by  Oxford  and  Cam 
bridge,  in  England;  but  why  was  it  not  given 
ten  or  fifteen  years  earlier,  when  Holmes  was  in 
his  prime!  Then  it  might  have  been  a  service 
and  a  satisfaction  to  him;  but  when  a  man  is 
seventy  such  tributes  have  small  value  for  him. 
There  had  been  an  Atlantic  breakfast  for  Doc 
tor  Holmes  in  Boston,  and  a  Holmes  breakfast 
in  New  York.  He  was  in  the  public  eye,  and  by 
honoring  him  the  University  honored  itself.  So 
Harvard  conferred  an  LL.D.  on  General  Win- 
field  Scott  just  before  the  fatal  battle  of  Bull 
Run, — instead  of  after  his  brilliant  Mexican 
campaign.  If  the  degree  was  not  conferred  on 


DOCTOR   HOLMES  161 

Holmes  for  his  literary  work,  what  reason  could 
be  assigned  for  it ;  and  if  he  deserved  it  on  that 
account,  Emerson  and  Hawthorne  certainly  de 
served  it  much  more.  Let  us  be  thankful  that 
no  such  mischief  was  contemplated.  If  hon 
orary  degrees  are  to  be  given  in  order  to  attract 
attention  to  a  university,  or  worse  still,  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  legacies,  they  had  better 
be  abolished  altogether. 

During  his  last  visit  to  England  Doctor 
Holmes  was  the  guest  of  F.  Max  Miiller  at  Ox 
ford,  and  years  afterwards  Professor  Miiller 
wrote  to  an  American  correspondent  concerning 
him  and  others : 

"Froude  was  a  dear  friend  of  mine,  related 
to  my  wife;  so  was  Kingsley — dear  soul.  E-e- 
nan  used  to  fetch  books  for  me  when  we  first 
met  at  the  Bibliothique  Eoyale.  Emerson 
stayed  at  my  house  on  his  last  visit  here.  But 
the  best  of  all  my  American  friends  was  Wen 
dell  Holmes.  When  he  left  us  he  said,  'I  have 
talked  to  thousands  of  people — you  are  the  only 
one  with  whom  I  have  had  a  conversation. '  We 
had  talked  about  ™  tify1*™ — the  world  as  the 
logos,  as  the  thought  of  God.  What  a  pure 
soul  his  was — a  real  Serene  Highness. " 

This  is  trancendentalism  from  the  fountain- 
head;  and  here  Doctor  Holmes  may  fairly  be 
said  to  have  avenged  himself  on  the  Nation's 

excoriating  critic. 

11 


FRANK  W.  BIRD,  AND  THE  BIED  CLUB. 

It  is  less  than  four  miles  from  Harvard 
Square  to  Boston  City  Hall,  a  building  rather 
exceptional  for  its  fine  architecture  among  pub 
lic  edifices,  but  the  change  in  1865  was  like  the 
change  from  one  sphere  of  human  thought  and 
activity  to  another.  In  Boston  politics  was  ev 
erything,  and  literature,  art,  philosophy  noth 
ing,  or  next  to  nothing.  There  was  mercantile 
life,  of  course,  and  careworn  merchants  anx 
iously  waiting  about  the  gold-board;  but  there 
were  no  tally-ho  coaches ;  there  was  no  golf  or 
polo,  and  very  little  yachting.  Fashionable  so 
ciety  was  also  at  a  low  ebb,  and  as  Wendell 
Phillips  remarked  in  1866,  the  only  parties  were 
boys'  and  girls'  dancing-parties.  A  large  pro 
portion  of  the  finest  young  men  in  the  city  had, 
like  the  Lowells,  shed  their  blood  for  the  Repub 
lic.  The  young  people  danced,  but  their  elders 
looked  grave. 

At  this  time  the  political  centre  of  Massachu 
setts  and,  to  a  certain  extent  of  New  England, 
was  the  Bird  Club,  which  met  every  Saturday 
afternoon  at  Young's  Hotel  to  dine  and  discuss 
the  affairs  of  the  nation.  Its  membership 
counted  both  Senators,  the  Governor,  a  number 
of  ex-Governors  and  four  or  five  members  of 

162 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  163 

Congress.  They  were  a  strong  team  when  they 
were  all  harnessed  together. 

Francis  William  Bird,  the  original  organizer 
of  the  club,  was  born  in  Dedham,  October  22, 
1809,  and  the  only  remarkable  fact  concerning 
his  ancestry  would  seem  to  be  that  his  great- 
grandmother  was  a  Hawthorne,  of  the  same 
family  as  Nathaniel  Hawthorne ;  but  there  was 
no  trace  of  that  strongly-marked  lineage  in  his 
composition.  As  a  boy  he  was  quick  at  mathe 
matics,  but  not  much  of  a  student,  so  that  he 
was  full  eighteen  years  of  age  before  he  entered 
Brown  University.  His  college  course  also  left 
him  in  a  depleted  physical  condition,  and  it  was 
several  years  later  when  he  commenced  the 
actual  labor  of  life.  His  father  had  intended 
him  for  the  law;  but  this  did  not  agree  with 
his  health,  and  his  physician  advised  a  more 
active  employment.  Accordingly  we  find  him 
in  1835  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  paper 
at  East  Walpole,  an  occupation  in  which  he 
continued  until  1892, — always  suffering  from 
dyspepsia,  but  always  equal  to  whatever  occa 
sion  demanded  of  him.  He  was  a  tall,  thin, 
wiry-looking  man,  with  a  determined  expres 
sion,  but  of  kind  and  friendly  manners. 

He  must  have  been  a  skilful  man  of  business, 
for  all  the  great  financial  storms  of  the  half 
century,  in  which  he  lived  and  worked,  rolled 
over  him  without  causing  him  any  serious  em- 


164  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

barrassment.  His  note  was  always  good,  and 
his  word  was  as  good  as  his  note.  He  always 
seemed  to  have  money  enough  for  what  he 
wanted  to  do.  In  prosperous  times  he  spent 
generously,  although  habitually  practising  a 
kind  of  stoical  severity  in  regard  to  his  pri 
vate  affairs.  He  considered  luxury  the  bane 
of  wealth,  and  continually  admonished  his  chil 
dren  to  avoid  it.  He  was  an  old-fashioned 
Puritan  with  liberal  and  progressive  ideas. 

After  his  marriage  in  1843  to  Miss  Abigail 
Frances  Newell,  of  Boston,  he  built  a  commo 
dious  house  in  a  fine  grove  of  chestnuts  on  a 
hill-side  at  East  Walpole ;  and  there  he  brought 
up  his  children  like  Greeks  and  Amazons. 
Chestnut  woods  are  commonly  infested  with 
hornets,  but  he  directed  us  boys  not  to  mo 
lest  them,  for  he  wished  them  to  learn  that 
hornets  would  not  sting  unless  they  were  in 
terfered  with ;  an  excellent  principle  in  human 
nature.  Mrs.  Bird  resembled  her  husband  so 
closely  in  face  and  figure,  that  they  might  have 
been  mistaken  for  brother  and  sister.  She  was 
an  excellent  New  England  woman  of  the  old 
style,  and  well  adapted  to  make  her  husband 
comfortable  and  happy. 

The  connection  between  manufacturing  and 
politics  is  a  direct  and  natural  one.  A  man  who 
employs  thirty  or  forty  workmen,  and  treats 
them  fairly,  can  easily  obtain  an  election  to  the 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  165 

Legislature  without  exercising  any  direct  in 
fluence  over  them;  but  Frank  Bird's  workmen 
felt  that  he  had  a  personal  interest  in  each  one 
of  them.  He  never  was  troubled  with  strikes. 
When  hard  times  came  his  employees  submitted 
to  a  reduction  of  wages  without  murmuring, 
and  when  business  was  good  they  shared  again 
in  the  general  prosperity.  As  a  consequence  Mr. 
Bird  could  go  to  the  Legislature  as  often  as  he 
desired ;  and  when  he  changed  from  the  Repub 
lican  to  the  Democratic  party,  in  1872,  they  still 
continued  to  vote  for  him,  until  at  the  age  of 
seventy-one  he  finally  retired  from  public  life. 

On  one  election  day  he  is  said  to  have  called 
his  men  together,  and  to  have  told  them :  * '  You 
will  have  two  hours  this  afternoon  to  cast  your 
votes  in.  The  mill  will  close  at  4  o'clock,  and  I 
expect  every  man  to  vote  as  I  do.  Now  I  am 
going  to  vote  just  as  I  please,  and  I  hope  you 
will  all  do  the  same ;  but  if  any  one  of  my  men 
does  not  vote  just  as  he  wants  to,  and  I  find  it 
out,  I  will  discharge  him  to-morrow. ' '  One  can 
imagine  Abraham  Lincoln  making  a  speech  like 
this,  on  a  similar  occasion. 

Frank  W.  Bird,  like  J.  B.  Sargent,  of  New 
Haven,  was  a  rare  instance  of  an  American 
manufacturer  who  believed  in  free-trade.  This 
was  one  reason  why  he  joined  the  Democratic 
party  in  1872.  He  considered  that  protection 
encouraged  sleazy  and  fraudulent  work,  and 


166  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

placed  honest  manufacturers  at  a  disadvan 
tage;  though  he  obtained  these  ideas  rather 
from  reading  English  magazines  than  from 
any  serious  study  of  his  own.  He  was  natu 
rally  much  more  of  a  Democrat  than  a  Whig, 
or  Federalist,  but  he  opposed  the  doctrine  of 
State  Rights,  declaring  that  it  was  much  more 
responsible  for  the  Civil  War  than  the  anti- 
slavery  agitation  was. 

The  same  political  exigency  which  roused 
James  Russell  Lowell  also  brought  Francis  Wil 
liam  Bird  before  the  public.  In  company  with 
Charles  Francis  Adams  he  attended  the  Buffalo 
convention,  in  1848,  and  helped  to  nominate 
Martin  Van  Buren  for  the  Presidency.  He  was, 
however,  doing  more  effective  work  by  assisting 
Elizur  Wright  in  publishing  the  Chronotype  (the 
most  vigorous  of  all  the  anti-slavery  papers), 
both  with  money  and  writing ;  and  in  a  written 
argument  there  were  few  who  could  equal  him. 
He  appears  to  have  been  the  only  person  at  that 
time  who  gave  Elizur  Wright  much  support  and 
encouragement. 

In  1850  Bird  was  elected  to  the  State  Legisla 
ture  and  worked  vigorously  for  the  election  of 
Sumner  the  ensuing  winter.  His  chief  asso 
ciates  during  the  past  two  years  had  been 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  the  most  distinguished 
of  American  diplomats  since  Benjamin  Frank 
lin,  John  A.  Andrew,  then  a  struggling  lawyer, 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  167 

and  Henry  L.  Pierce,  afterwards  Mayor  of  Bos 
ton.  Now  a  greater  name  was  added  to  them; 
for  Simmer  was  not  only  an  eloquent  orator, 
perhaps  second  to  Webster,  but  he  had  a  world 
wide  reputation  as  a  legal  authority. 

Adams,  however,  failed  to  recognize  that  like 
his  grandfather  he  was  living  in  a  revolutionary 
epoch,  and  after  the  Kansas  struggle  com 
menced  he  became  continually  more  conserva 
tive — if  that  is  the  word  for  it — and  finally  in 
his  Congressional  speech  in  the  winter  of  1861 
he  made  the  fatal  statement  that  personally  he 
would  be  "in  favor  of  permitting  the  Southern 
States  to  secede,"  although  he  could  not  see 
that  there  was  any  legal  right  for  it.  This  acted 
as  a  divider  between  him  and  his  former  asso 
ciates,  until  in  1876  he  found  himself  again  in 
the  same  party  with  Frank  W.  Bird. 

During  the  administration  of  Governor  Banks, 
that  is,  between  1857  and  1860,  Bird  served  on 
the  Governor's  council,  although  generally  in 
opposition  to  Banks  himself.  He  went  as  a  del 
egate  to  the  Chicago  Convention  of  1860,  where 
he  voted  at  first  for  Seward,  and  afterwards  for 
Lincoln.  From  that  time  forward,  until  1880, 
he  was  always  to  be  found  at  the  State  House, 
and  devoted  so  much  time  to  public  affairs  that 
it  is  a  wonder  his  business  of  paper  manufac 
turing  did  not  suffer  from  it.  Yet  he  always 
seemed  to  have  plenty  of  time,  and  was  never  so 


168  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

much  absorbed  in  what  he  was  doing  but  that  he 
could  give  a  cordial  greeting  to  any  of  his 
numerous  friends.  His  face  would  beam  with 
pleasure  at  the  sight  of  an  old  acquaintance,  and 
I  have  known  him  to  dash  across  the  street  like 
a  school-boy  in  order  to  intercept  a  former 
member  of  the  Legislature  who  was  passing  by 
on  the  other  side.  Such  a  man  has  a  good  heart. 

Frank  Bird's  abilities  fitted  him  for  higher 
positions  than  he  ever  occupied ;  but  he  was  so 
serviceable  in  the  Legislature  that  all  his 
friends  felt  that  he  ought  to  remain  there.  He 
was  inexorable  in  his  demand  for  honest  gov 
ernment,  and  when  he  rose  to  speak  all  the 
guilty  consciences  in  the  house  began  to  trem 
ble.  He  was  the  terror  of  the  lobbyist,  and  of 
the  legislative  log-roller.  This  made  him  many 
enemies,  but  he  expected  it  and  knew  how  to 
meet  them.  He  was  especially  feared  while  An 
drew  was  Governor,  for  every  one  knew  that  he 
had  consulted  with  Andrew  before  making  his 
motion.  He  was  the  Governor's  man  of  busi 
ness. 

He  came  to  know  the  character  of  every  poli 
tician  in  the  State, — what  his  opinions  were, 
and  how  far  he  could  be  depended  on.  In  this 
way  he  also  became  of  great  service  to  Sumner 
and  Wilson,  who  wished  to  know  what  was  tak 
ing  place  behind  their  backs  while  they  were 
absent  at  Washington.  Sumner  did  not  trouble 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  169 

himself  much  as  to  public  opinion,  but  this  was 
of  great  importance  to  Wilson,  who  depended 
on  politics  for  his  daily  bread.  Both,  however, 
wanted  to  know  the  condition  of  affairs  in  their 
own  State,  and  they  found  that  Frank  Bird's 
information  was  always  trustworthy, — for  he 
had  no  ulterior  object  of  his  own. 

Thus  he  acquired  much  greater  influence  in 
public  affairs  than  most  of  the  members  of  Con 
gress.  When  Mr.  Baldwin,  who  represented  his 
district,  retired  in  1868,  Frank  Bird  became  a 
candidate  for  the  National  Legislature,  but  he 
suffered  from  the  disadvantage  of  living  at  the 
small  end  of  the  district,  and  the  prize  was  car 
ried  off  by  George  F.  Hoar,  afterwards  United 
States  Senator;  but  going  to  Congress  in  the 
seventies  was  not  what  it  had  been  in  the  fifties 
and  sixties,  when  the  halls  of  the  Capitol  re 
sounded  with  the  most  impressive  oratory  of 
the  nineteenth  century. 

Frank  Bird  did  not  pretend  to  be  an  orator. 
His  speeches  were  frank,  methodical  and  di 
rectly  to  the  point;  and  very  effective  with 
those  who  could  be  influenced  by  reason,  with 
out  appeals  to  personal  prejudice.  He  hated 
flattery  in  all  its  forms,  and  honestly  confessed 
that  the  temptation  of  public  speakers  to  cajole 
their  audiences  was  the  one  great  demon  of  a 
democratic  government.  He  liked  Wendell 
Phillips  on  account  of  the  manly  way  in  which 


170  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

he  fought  against  his  audiences,  and  strove  to 
bring  them  round  to  his  own  opinion. 

He  was  as  single-minded  as  Emerson  or  Lin 
coln.  In  November,  1862,  Emerson  said  to  me : 
"I  came  from  Springfield  the  other  day  in  the 
train  with  your  father's  friend,  Frank  Bird, 
and  I  like  him  very  much.  I  often  see  his  name 
signed  to  newspaper  letters,  and  in  future  I 
shall  always  read  them."  Strangely  enough,  a 
few  days  later  I  was  dining  with  Mr.  Bird  and 
he  referred  to  the  same  incident.  When  I  in 
formed  him  that  Emerson  had  also  spoken  of  it 
he  seemed  very  much  pleased. 

If  any  one  paid  him  a  compliment  or  ex 
pressed  gratitude  for  some  act  of  kindness,  he 
would  hesitate  and  become  silent  for  a  moment, 
as  if  he  were  reflecting  whether  he  deserved  it 
or  not;  and  then  would  go  on  to  some  other 
subject. 

His  acts  of  kindness  were  almost  numberless. 
He  assisted  those  whom  others  would  not  as 
sist;  and  if  he  suspected  that  a  small  office 
holder  was  being  tyrannized  over,  he  would 
take  no  rest  until  he  had  satisfied  himself  of  the 
truth  of  the  case.  In  February,  1870,  he  learned 
that  a  high  official  in  the  Boston  Post-office,  who 
was  supported  in  his  position  by  the  Governor 
of  the  State,  was  taking  advantage  of  this  to 
levy  a  blackmail  on  his  subordinates,  compelling 
them  to  pay  him  a  commission  in  order  to  retain 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  171 

their  places.  Frank  Bird  was  furious  with  hon 
est  indignation.  He  said:  "I  will  go  to  Wash 
ington  and  have  that  man  turned  out  if  I  have 
to  see  Grant  himself  for  it";  and  so  he  did. 

One  evening  at  Walpole  a  poor  woman  came 
to  him  in  distress,  because  her  only  son  had 
been  induced  to  enlist  in  the  Navy,  and  was 
already  on  board  a  man-of-war  at  the  Boston 
Navy-yard.  Mr.  Bird  knew  the  youth,  and  was 
aware  that  he  was  very  slightly  feeble-minded. 
The  vessel  would  sail  in  three  days,  and  there 
was  no  time  to  be  lost.  He  telegraphed  the  facts 
as  briefly  as  possible  to  Senator  Wilson,  and  in 
twenty-four  hours  received  an  order  to  have  the 
widow's  son  discharged.  Then  he  would  not 
trust  the  order  to  the  commandant,  who  might 
have  delayed  its  execution,  but  sent  it  to  an 
agent  of  his  own  in  the  Navy-yard,  who  saw 
that  the  thing  was  done. 

Frank  Bird's  most  distinguished  achievement 
in  politics  was  the  nomination  of  Andrew  for 
Governor  in  1860.  Governor  Banks  was  not 
favorable  to  Andrew  and  his  friends,  and  used 
what  influence  he  possessed  for  the  benefit  of 
Henry  L.  Dawes.  An  organization  for  the  nom 
ination  of  Dawes  had  already  been  secretly 
formed  before  Frank  Bird  was  acquainted  with 
Banks 's  retirement  from  the  field.  Bird  and 
Henry  L.  Pierce  were  at  Plymouth  when  they 
first  heard  of  it,  about  the  middle  of  July,  and 


172  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

they  immediately  returned  to  Boston,  started 
a  bureau,  opened  a  subscription-list,  and  with 
the  cooperation  of  the  Bird  Club  carried  the 
movement  through.  It  would  have  made  a 
marked  difference  in  public  affairs  during  the 
War  for  the  Union  if  Dawes  had  been  Governor 
instead  of  Andrew.* 

Frank  Bird  had  this  peculiarity,  that  the 
more  kindly  he  felt  to  those  who  were  unfortu 
nate  in  life,  the  more  antagonistic  he  seemed  to 
those  who  were  exceptionally  prosperous.  He 
appeared  to  have  a  sort  of  spite  against  hand 
some  men  and  women,  as  if  nature  had  been 
over-partial  to  them  in  comparison  with  others. 
He  was  not  a  pedantic  moralist,  but  at  the  same 
time  rather  exacting  in  his  requirements  of 
others,  as  he  was  of  himself. 

The  Bird  Club  was  evolved  out  of  the  condi 
tions  of  its  times,  like  a  natural  growth.  Its 
nucleus  was  formed  in  the  campaign  of  1848, 
when  Bird,  Andrew,  Henry  L.  Pierce,  and  Wil 
liam  S.  Robinson  fell  into  the  habit  of  dining 
together  and  discussing  public  affairs  every 
Saturday  afternoon.  It  was  not  long  before 
they  were  joined  by  Elizur  Wright  and  Henry 
Wilson.  Sumner  came  to  dine  with  them,  when 


*  Dawes  was  an  excellent  man  in  his  way,  but  during 
eighteen  years  in  the  United  States  Senate  he  never  made 
an  important  speech. 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  173 

he  was  not  in  Washington,  and  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe 
came  with  him.  The  Kansas  excitement  brought 
in  George  L.  Stearns  and  Frank  B.  Sanborn,— 
one  the  president  and  the  other  the  secretary  of 
the  Kansas  Aid  Society.  In  1860  the  club  had 
from  thirty  to  forty  members,  and  during  the 
whole  course  of  its  existence  it  had  more  than 
sixty  members;  but  it  never  had  any  regular 
organization.  A  member  could  bring  a  friend 
with  him,  and  if  the  friend  was  liked,  Mr.  Bird 
would  invite  him  to  come  again.  No  vote  ever 
appears  to  have  been  taken.  Mr.  Bird  sat  at 
the  head  of  the  table,  and  if  he  was  late  or  ab 
sent  his  place  would  be  supplied  by  George  L. 
Stearns.  At  his  right  hand  sat  Governor  An 
drew,  and  either  Sumner  or  Stearns  on  his  left. 
Doctor  Howe  and  Wilson  sat  next  to  them,  and 
were  balanced  on  the  opposite  side  by  Sanborn, 
Governor  Washburn, .  and  two  or  three  mem 
bers  of  Congress.  However,  there  was  no  sys 
tematic  arrangement  of  the  guests  at  this  feast, 
although  the  more  important  members  of  the 
club  naturally  clustered  about  Mr.  Bird. 

N.  P.  Banks  never  appeared  there,  either  as 
Governor  or  General;  and  from  this  it  was 
argued  that  he  was  ambitious  to  become  Sena 
tor  ;  or  it  may  have  been  owing  to  his  differences 
with  Bird,  while  the  latter  was  on  the  Govern 
or's  Council.  In  this  way  the  Bird  Club  be 
came  the  test  of  a  man's  political  opinion,  and 


174  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

prominent  politicians  who  absented  themselves 
from  it  were  looked  upon  with  more  or  less  dis 
trust. 

The  discussions  at  the  club  were  frank,  manly, 
and  unreserved.  Members  who  talked  from  the 
point  were  likely  to  be  corrected  without  cere 
mony,  and  sometimes  received  pretty  hard 
knocks.  On  one  occasion  General  B.  F.  Butler, 
who  had  come  into  the  club  soon  after  his  cele 
brated  contraband-of-war  order,  was  complain 
ing  that  the  New  York  Republicans  had  nomi 
nated  General  Francis  C.  Barlow  for  Secretary 
of  State,  and  that  General  Barlow  had  not  been 
long  enough  in  the  Republican  party  to  deserve 
it,  when  Robinson  replied  to  him  that  Barlow 
had  been  a  Republican  longer  than  some  of 
those  present,  and  Frank  Bird  remarked  that  he 
was  as  good  a  Republican  as  any  that  were 
going.  Butler  looked  as  if  he  had  swallowed 
a  pill. 

William  S.  Robinson  was  at  once  the  wit  and 
scribe  of  the  club,  and  the  only  newswriter  that 
was  permitted  to  come  to  the  table.  He  enjoyed 
the  advantage  of  confidential  talk  and  authentic 
information,  which  no  other  writer  of  that  time 
possessed,  and  his  letters  to  the  Springfield 
Republican,  extending  over  a  period  of  fifteen 
years,  come  next  in  value  to  the  authentic  docu 
ments  of  that  important  period.  They  pos 
sessed  the  rare  merit  of  a  keen  impartiality, 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  175 

and  though  sometimes  rather  sharp,  were  never 
far  from  the  mark.  He  not  only  criticised  Grant 
and  the  political  bosses  of  that  time,  but  his 
personal  friends,  Sumner,  Wilson,  and  Frank 
Bird  himself. 

In  1872  Emerson  said  to  a  member  of  the 
club:  "I  do  not  like  William  Eobinson.  His 
hand  is  against  every  man";  but  it  is  doubtful 
if  Robinson  ever  published  so  hard  a  criticism 
of  any  person,  and  certainly  none  so  unjust. 
Emerson  without  being  aware  of  it  was  strongly 
influenced  by  a  cabal  for  the  overthrow  of  Eob 
inson,  in  which  General  Butler  took  a  leading 
hand.  Eobinson  was  clerk  of  the  State  Senate, 
and  could  not  afford  to  lose  his  position ;  after 
wards,  when  he  did  lose  it,  he  fell  sick  and  died. 
He  preferred  truth-telling  and  poverty  to  a 
compromising  prosperity,  and  left  no  one  to  fill 
his  place. 

Frank  B.  Sanborn  was  for  a  time  editor  of 
the  Boston  Commonwealth,  and  afterwards  of 
the  Springfield  Republican;  but  he  was  better 
known  as  the  efficient  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  State  Charities,  a  position  to  which  he  was 
appointed  by  Governor  Andrew,  and  from 
which  he  was  unjustly  removed  by  Governor 
Ames,  twenty  years  later.  He  was  an  indefat 
igable  worker,  and  during  that  time  there  was 
not  an  almshouse  or  other  institution,  public 
or  private,  in  the  State  for  the  benefit  of  the 


176  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

unfortunate  portion  of  mankind  where  he  was 
not  either  feared  or  respected — a  man  whose 
active  principle  was  the  conscientious  perform 
ance  of  duty.  He  was  also  noted  for  his  fidelity 
to  his  friends.  He  cared  for  the  family  of  John 
Brown  and  watched  over  their  interests  as  if 
they  had  been  his  own  family ;  he  made  a  home 
for  the  poet  Channing  in  his  old  age,  and  was 
equally  devoted  to  the  Alcotts  and  others,  who 
could  not  altogether  help  themselves.  He  was 
himself  a  charitable  institution. 

Henry  Wilson  is  also  worth  a  passing  notice, 
for  the  strange  resemblance  of  his  life  to  Presi 
dent  Lincoln's,  if  for  no  other  reason.  His 
name  was  originally  Colbath,  and  he  was  re 
puted  to  have  been  born  under  a  barbery-bush 
in  one  of  the  green  lanes  of  New  Hampshire. 
The  name  is  an  exceptional  one,  and  the  family 
would  seem  to  have  been  of  the  same  roving 
Bedouin-like  sort  as  that  of  Lincoln's  ancestors. 
He  began  life  as  a  shoemaker,  was  wholly  self- 
educated,  and  changed  his  name  to  escape  from 
his  early  associations.  He  would  seem  to  have 
absorbed  all  the  virtue  in  his  family  for  several 
generations.  No  sooner  had  he  entered  into  pol 
itics  than  he  was  recognized  to  have  a  master 
hand.  He  rose  rapidly  to  the  highest  position  in 
the  gift  of  his  State,  and  finally  to  be  Vice-Pres- 
ident.  If  his  health  had  not  given  way  in  1873 
he  might  even  have  become  President  in  the 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  177 

place  of  Hayes;  for  he  was  a  person  whom 
every  man  felt  that  he  could  trust.  His  loy 
alty  to  Sumner  bordered  on  veneration,  and 
was  the  finest  trait  in  his  character.  There 
was  no  pretense  in  Henry  Wilson's  patriot 
ism;  everyone  felt  that  he  would  have  died 
for  his  country. 

In  1870  General  Butler  disappeared  from  the 
club,  to  the  great  relief  of  Sumner  and  his  im 
mediate  friends.  He  had  already  shown  the 
cloven  foot  by  attacking  the  financial  credit  of 
the  government;  and  the  question  was,  what 
would  he  do  next?  He  had  found  the  club  an 
obstacle  to  his  further  advancement  in  politics, 
and  when  in  the  autumn  campaign  Wendell 
Phillips  made  a  series  of  attacks  on  the  charac 
ter  of  the  club,  and  especially  on  Bird  himself, 
the  hand  of  Butler  was  immediately  recognized 
in  it,  and  his  plans  for  the  future  were  easily 
calculated.  It  is  probable  that  Phillips  sup 
posed  he  was  doing  the  public  a  service  in  this, 
but  the  methods  he  pursued  were  not  much  to 
his  credit.  Phillips  learned  that  the  president 
of  the  Hartford  and  Erie  Eailroad  had  recently 
given  Mr.  Bird  an  Alderney  bull-calf,  and  as  he 
could  not  find  anything  else  against  Bird's 
character  he  made  the  most  of  this.  He  spoke 
of  it  as  of  the  nature  of  a  legislative  bribe,  and 
in  an  oration  delivered  in  the  Boston  Music 

Hall  he  called  it  "a  thousand  dollars  in  blood." 

12 


178  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

"Who,"  he  asked  of  his  audience,  " would  think 
of  exchanging  a  bird  for  a  bull  1 ' ' 

This  was  unfortunate  for  the  calf,  which  lost 
its  life  in  consequence;  but  it  was  not  worth 
more  than  ten  dollars,  and  the  contrast  between 
the  respective  reputations  of  General  Butler 
and  Mr.  Bird  made  Wendell  Phillips  appear  in 
rather  a  ridiculous  light. 

The  following  year,  1871,  as  the  Bird  Club  ex 
pected,  General  Butler  made  a  strong  fight  for 
the  gubernatorial  nomination,  and  the  club  op 
posed  him  in  a  solid  body.  Sanborn  at  this 
time  was  editing  the  Springfield  Republican, 
and  he  exposed  Butler's  past  political  course 
in  an  unsparing  manner.  Butler  made  speeches 
in  all  the  cities  and  larger  towns  of  the  State, 
and  when  he  came  to  Springfield  'he  singled  out 
Sanborn,  whom  he  recognized  in  the  audience, 
for  a  direct  personal  attack.  Sanborn  rose  to 
reply  to  him,  and  the  contrast  between  the  two 
men  was  like  that  between  Lincoln  and  Doug 
las;  Sanborn  six  feet  four  inches  in  height, 
and  Butler  much  shorter,  but  very  thick-set. 
The  altercation  became  a  warm  one,  and  Butler 
must  have  been  very  angry,  for  he  grew  red  in 
the  face  and  danced  about  the  platform  as  if  the 
boards  were  hot  under  his  feet.  The  audience 
greeted  both  speakers  with  applause  and  hisses. 

It  was  a  decided  advantage  for  General  But 
ler  that  there  were  three  other  candidates  in  the 


FRANK   W.  BIRD  179 

field;  but  both  Sumner  and  Wilson  brought 
their  influence  to  bear  against  him,  and  this, 
with  Sanborn's  telling  editorials,  would  seem 
to  have  decided  his  defeat;  for  when  the  final 
struggle  came  at  the  Worcester  Convention  the 
vote  was  a  very  close  one  and  a  small  matter 
might  have  changed  it  in  his  favor. 

The  difference  between  Sumner  and  the  ad 
ministration,  in  1872,  on  the  San  Domingo  ques 
tion  accomplished  what  Phillips  and  Butler 
were  unable  to  effect.  Frank  Bird  and  Sum 
ner  's  more  independent  friends  left  the  club, 
which  was  then  dining  at  Young's  Hotel,  and 
seceded  to  the  Parker  House,  where  Sumner 
joined  them  not  long  afterwards.  Senator  Wil 
son  and  the  more  deep-rooted  Eepublicans 
formed  a  new  organization  called  the  Massachu 
setts  Club,  which  still  existed  in  the  year  1900. 

The  great  days  of  the  Bird  Club  were  over. 
With  the  death  of  Sumner,  in  1874,  its  political 
importance  came  to  an  end,  and  although  its 
members  continued  to  meet  for  five  or  six  years 
longer,  it  ceased  to  attract  public  attention. 

At  the  age  of  eighty  Frank  W.  Bird  still  di 
rected  the  financial  affairs  of  his  paper  busi 
ness,  but  he  looked  back  on  his  life  as  a 
"  wretched  failure."  No  matter  how  much  he 
accomplished,  it  seemed  to  him  as, nothing  com 
pared  with  what  he  had  wished  to  do.  Would 
there  were  more  such  failures ! 


SUMNER. 

CHARLES  PINCKNEY  STJMNER,  the  father  of 
Charles  Simmer,  was  a  man  of  an  essentially 
veracious  nature.  He  was  high  sheriff  of  Suf 
folk  County,  Massachusetts,  and  when  there  was 
a  criminal  to  be  executed  he  always  performed 
the  office  himself.  Once  when  some  one  inquired 
why  he  did  not  delegate  such  a  disagreeable  task 
to  one  of  his  deputies,  he  is  said  to  have  replied, 
"Simply  because  it  is  disagreeable."  It  was 
this  elevated  sense  of  moral  responsibility 
which  formed  the  keynote  of  his  son's  character. 

Charles  Sumner's  mother  was  Miss  Relief 
Jacobs,  a  name  in  which  we  distinguish  at  once 
a  mixture  of  the  Hebrew  and  the  Puritan.  She 
belonged  in  fact  to  a  Christianized  Jewish  fam 
ily,  but  how  long  since  her  ancestors  became 
Christianized  remains  in  doubt.  Yet  it  is  easy 
to  recognize  the  Hebrew  element  in  Suinner's 
nature;  the  inflexibility  of  purpose,  the  abso 
lute  self-devotion,  and  even  the  prophetic  fore 
cast.  Sumner  was  an  old  Hebrew  prophet  in 
the  guise  of  an  American  statesman.  True  to 
his  mother's  name,  he  was  at  once  a  Puritan  and 
an  Israelite  in  whom  there  was  no  guile ;  for  he 
was  wholly  exempt  from  covetousness  and  other 
meaner  qualities  of  the  Hebrew  nature.  In  such 

180 


SUMNER  181 

respects  Jews  and  Yankees  are  much  alike. 
Either  they  are  generous  and  high-minded,  or 
they  are  not. 

Charles  was  rather  a  peculiar  boy,  as  great 
men  are  apt  to  be  in  their  youth.  He  cared  lit 
tle  for  boyish  games,  and  still  less  for  the  bright 
eyes  of  the  girls.  He  had  remarkably  long  arms 
and  legs,  which  were  too  often  in  the  way  of  his 
comrades,  and  from  which  he  derived  the  nick 
name  at  the  Latin-School  of  ' '  gawky  Sumner ' ' ; 
and  it  may  be  well  to  notice  here  that  there  is 
no  better  sign  for  future  superiority  than  for  a 
lad  to  be  ridiculed  in  this  manner;  while  the 
wags  who  invent  such  sobriquets  usually  come 
to  no  good  end.*  There  is  sufficient  evidence, 
however,  that  Sumner  was  well  liked  both  at 
school  and  at  college. 

He  had  his  revenge  on  declamation  day,  for 
whereas  others  stumbled  through  their  pieces, 
he  seemed  perfectly  at  home  on  the  platform; 
his  awkwardness  disappeared  and  his  perform 
ance  gave  plain  indications  of  the  future  ora 
tor.  Wendell  Phillips  was  in  the  class  after 
him,  and  they  both  were  excellent  speakers. 

Sumner 's  early  life  was  not  like  that  of  Lin 
coln,  neither  was  he  obliged  to  split  rails  for  a 
living ;  but  it  was  a  life  of  good  stoical  training 
nevertheless.  Sheriff  Sumner  had  eight  chil- 

*  More  than  one  such  has  died  the  death  of  an  inebriate. 


182  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

dren  living  at  one  time,  and  with  the  natural  de 
sire  to  give  them  as  good  an  education  as  his 
own,  he  could  not  afford  to  spend  much  on  ex 
ternal  elegances.  It  was  not  until  Charles  had 
become  a  distinguished  lawyer  that  his  mother 
dispensed  with  the  iron  forks  and  spoons  on 
her  dinner  table;  and  this  gives  a  fair  idea 
of  their  domestic  economy.  We  learn  from 
Pierce 's  biography  that  his  college  expenses 
did  not  exceed  two  hundred  dollars  a  year ;  and 
this  included  everything. 

He  entered  at  Harvard  in  the  class  of  1830 ; 
a  year  after  Doctor  Holmes  and  a  year  before 
Wendell  Phillips.  Much  more  is  known  con 
cerning  his  college  life  than  that  of  other  dis 
tinguished  men  of  that  time,  and  it  is  highly 
interesting  to  recognize  the  mature  man  fore 
shadowed  in  the  youth  of  eighteen.  He  was  a 
good  scholar  in  everything  but  mathematics; 
yet,  at  the  same  time,  he  cared  little  for  rank. 
He  was  an  enthusiastic  reader,  and  sometimes 
neglected  his  studies  for  a  book  in  which  he  was 
more  deeply  interested.  He  also  liked  to  con 
verse  about  the  books  he  read,  and  in  this  way 
acquired  a  reputation  for  loquacity  which  never 
left  him  as  long  as  he  lived.  It  was  sometimes 
troublesome  to  his  friends,  but  it  was  of  great 
advantage  to  him  as  a  pubHc  speaker.  He  lived 
a  quiet,  sober,  industrious  life  in  college,  attract 
ing  comparatively  little  attention  from  either 


SUMNER  183 

his  instructors  or  his  fellow  students.  Yet,  he 
showed  the  independence  of  his  character  by  at 
tending  a  cattle-show  at  Brighton,  a  proceed 
ing  for  which  he  would  have  been  suspended  if 
it  had  been  discovered  by  the  college  faculty. 
There  were  many  foolish,  monkish  restrictions 
at  Harvard  in  those  days,  and  among  them  it 
was  not  considered  decorous  for  a  student  to 
wear  a  colored  vest.  He  might  wear  a  white 
vest,  but  not  a  buff  or  a  figured  one.  Simmer 
preferred  a  buff  vest,  and  insisted  on  wearing 
it.  When  he  was  reprimanded  for  doing  so  he 
defended  his  course  vigorously,  and  exposed  the 
absurdity  of  the  regulation  in  such  plain  terms 
that  the  faculty  concluded  to  let  him  alone  for 
the  future.*  He  was  exceedingly  fond  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  authors,  and  quoted  from  them 
in  his  letters  at  this  time,  as  he  did  afterwards 
in  his  speeches.  His  college  course  was  not  a 
brilliant  one  like  Everett's  and  Phillips 's,  but 
seems  to  have  been  based  on  a  more  solid 
ground-work. 

It  was  in  the  Law-School  that  Sumner  first 
distinguished  himself.  Judge  Story,  who  had 
left  the  United  States  Supreme  Bench  to  be 
come  a  Harvard  professor,  was  the  chief  lumi 
nary  of  the  school  and  the  finest  instructor  in 

*  In  1860  he  still  continued  to  wear  a  buff  vest  in  sum 
mer  weather. 


184  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

law  of  his  time.  He  soon  discovered  in  Sumner 
a  pupil  after  his  own  heart,  and  in  spite  of  the 
disparity  of  their  ages  they  became  intimate 
friends.  This  is  the  more  significant  because 
Phillips  was  also  in  the  same  class,  and  the 
more  brilliant  scholar  of  the  two;  but  Judge 
Story  soon  discovered  that  Phillips  was  study 
ing  as  a  means  to  an  end,  while  Sumner's  in 
terest  in  the  law  was  like  that  of  a  great  artist 
who  works  from  the  pure  love  of  his  subject. 

William  W.  Story,  who  was  a  boy  at  this 
time,  records  the  fact  that  Sumner  was  always 
pleasant  and  kind  to  children. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-four  Charles  Sumner 
was  himself  appointed  an  instructor  at  the  Law- 
School  ;  and  during  the  two  following  years  he 
edited  the  reports  of  Judge  Story's  decisions  in 
the  United  States  Circuit  Courts. 

It  is  evident  from  James  Eussell  LowelPs 
"Fable  for  Critics"  that  the  personalities  of 
his  contemporaries  troubled  him :  he  could  not 
see  over  their  heads.  In  1837  Sumner  went  to 
Europe  and  we  find  from  his  letters  to  Judge 
Story,  George  S.  Hillard,  and  others,  that  he 
had  already  obtained  a  vantage  ground  from 
which  the  civilized  world  lay  before  him,  as  all 
New  England  does  from  the  top  of  Mount 
Washington.  He  goes  into  a  French  law  court, 
and  analyzes  the  procedure  of  French  justice 
in  a  letter  which  has  the  value  of  an  historical 


SUMNER  185 

document.  He  noticed  that  Napoleon  was  still 
spoken  of  as  I'Empereur,  although  there  was  a 
king  in  France, — a  fact  pregnant  with  future 
consequences.  He  remained  in  Paris  until  he 
was  a  complete  master  of  the  French  language, 
and  attended  one  hundred  and  fifty  lectures  at 
the  university  and  elsewhere.  He  enjoyed  the 
grand  opera  and  the  acting  in  French  theatres ; 
nor  did  he  neglect  to  study  Italian  art.  He  was 
making  a  whole  man  of  himself ;  and  it  seemed 
as  if  an  unconscious  instinct  was  guiding  him 
to  his  destiny. 

Fortunate  was  the  old  Sheriff  to  have  such  a 
son ;  but  Charles  Sumner  was  also  fortunate  to 
have  had  a  father  who  was  willing  to  save  and 
economize  for  his  benefit.  Otherwise  he  might 
have  been  a  sheriff  himself. 

Judge  Story's  letters  of  introduction  opened 
the  doors  wide  to  him  in  England.  In  the 
course  of  ten  months  he  became  acquainted  with 
almost  every  distinguished  person  in  the  United 
Kingdom.  He  never  asked  for  introductions, 
and  he  never  presented  himself  without  one.  He 
was  handed  from  one  mansion  to  another  all  the 
way  from  London  to  the  Scotch  Highlands. 
Only  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  he  was  treated 
on  an  equality  by  men  ten  to  fifteen  years  his 
senior;  and  he  proved  himself  equal  to  their 
expectations.  No  American  except  Lowell  has 
ever  made  such  a  favorable  impression  in  Eng- 


186  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

land  as  Simmer;  but  this  happened  in  Sum 
ner 's  youth,  while  Lowell  in  his  earlier  visits 
attracted  little  attention. 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  if  he  had  been  the 
son  of  an  English  sheriff  this  would  not  have 
happened;  but  he  encountered  the  same  obsta 
cles  in  Boston  society  that  he  would  have  done 
under  similar  conditions  in  Great  Britain.  The 
doors  of  Wentworth  House  and  Strachan  Park 
were  open  to  him,  but  those  of  Beacon  Street 
were  closed, — and  perhaps  it  was  better  for  him 
on  the  whole  that  they  were. 

Sumner 's  letters  from  Europe  are  at  least  as 
interesting  as  those  written  by  any  other  Ameri 
can.  Such  breadth  of  vision  is  not  often  united 
with  clearness  and  accuracy  of  detail.  All  his 
letters  ought  to  be  published  in  a  volume  by 
themselves.  Sumner  returned  to  America  the 
following  year  and  settled  himself  quietly  and 
soberly  to  his  work  as  a  lawyer.  He  was  not  a 
success,  however,  as  a  practitioner  in  the  courts, 
unless  he  could  plead  before  a  bench  of  judges. 
In  the  Common  Pleas  an  ordinary  pettifogger 
would  often  take  a  case  away  from  him.  He 
could  not,  if  he  would,  have  practised  those  se 
ductive  arts  by  which  Eufus  Choate  drew  the 
jury  into  his  net,  in  spite  of  their  deliberate  in 
tentions  to  the  contrary.  Yet,  Sumner's  reputa 
tion  steadily  improved,  so  that  when  Longfellow 
came  to  live  in  Cambridge  he  found  Sumner 


SUMNER  187 

delivering  lectures  at  the  Harvard  Law-School, 
where  he  might  have  remained  the  rest  of  his 
life,  if  he  had  been  satisfied  with  a  merely  rou 
tine  employment,  and  the  fortunes  of  the  repub 
lic  had  not  decided  differently. 

The  attraction  between  Sumner  and  Longfel 
low  was  immediate  and  permanent.  It  was 
owing  more  perhaps  to  the  essential  purity  of 
their  natures,  than  to  mutual  sympathy  in  re 
gard  to  art  and  literature;  although  Longfel 
low  held  Sumner 's  literary  judgment  in  such 
respect  that  he  rarely  published  a  new  poem 
without  first  subjecting  his  work  to  Sumner 's 
criticism. 

Those  who  admired  Sumner  at  this  time,  for 
his  fine  moral  and  intellectual  qualities,  had  no 
adequate  conception  of  the  far  nobler  quality 
which  lay  concealed  in  the  depths  of  his  nature. 
Charles  Sumner  was  a  hero, — one  to  whom  life 
was  nothing  in  comparison  with  his  duty. 

It  was  in  the  anti-Irish  riot  of  June,  1837, 
that  he  first  gave  evidence  of  this.  Nothing  was 
more  hateful  to  him  than  race  prejudice,  and 
what  might  be  called  international  malignity, 
which  he  believed  was  the  most  frequent  cause 
of  war. 

As  soon  as  Sumner  was  notified  of  the  dis 
turbance,  he  hastened  to  the  scene  of  action, 
seized  on  a  prominent  position,  and  attempted 
to  address  the  insurgents ;  but  his  pacific  words 


188  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

only  excited  them  to  greater  fury.  They 
charged  on  him  and  his  little  group  of  support 
ers,  knocked  him  down  and  trampled  on  him. 
Dr.  S.  G.  Howe,  who  stood  near  by,  a  born 
fighter,  protected  Sumner's  prostrate  body,  and 
finally  carried  him  to  a  place  of  safety,  although 
twice  his  own  size.  Sumner  took  his  mishap 
very  coolly,  and,  as  soon  as  he  could  talk  freely, 
addressed  his  friends  on  the  evils  resulting 
from  race  prejudice. 

This  incident  may  have  led  Sumner  to  the 
choice  of  a  subject  for  his  Fourth  of  July  ora 
tion  in  1845.  The  title  of  this  address  was 
"The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations, "  but  its  real 
object  was  one  which  Sumner  always  had  at 
heart,  and  never  relinquished  the  hope  of,— 
namely,  the  establishment  of  an  international 
tribunal,  which  should  possess  jurisdiction  over 
the  differences  and  quarrels  between  nations, 
and  so  bring  warfare  forever  to  an  end.  The 
plan  is  an  impracticable  one,  because  the  decis 
ions  of  a  court  only  have  validity  if  it  is  able  to 
enforce  them,  and  how  could  the  decisions  of  an 
international  tribunal  have  value  in  case  the 
parties  concerned  declined  to  accept  them?  It 
would  only  result  in  waging  war  in  order  to  pre 
vent  war.  Yet,  of  all  the  Fourth  of  July  ora 
tions  that  were  delivered  in  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  Sumner 's  and  Webster's  are  the  only  two 
that  have  survived;  and  the  "True  Grandeur 


SUMNER  189 

of  Nations ' '  has  recently  been  published  by  the 
London  Peace  Society  as  an  argument  in  favor 
of  their  philanthropic  movement. 

Sumner  was  now  in  the  prime  of  manhood, 
and  a  rarely  handsome  man.  He  had  an  heroic 
figure,  six  feet  two  inches  in  height,  and  well 
proportioned  in  all  respects.  His  features,  too 
large  and  heavy  in  his  youth,  had  become  strong 
and  regular,  and  although  he  had  not  acquired 
that  leonine  look  of  reserved  power  with  which 
he  confronted  the  United  States  Senate,  his  ex 
pression  was  frank  and  fearless.  As  L.  Maria 
Child,  who  heard  him  frequently,  said,  he  seemed 
to  be  as  much  in  his  place  on  the  platform  as  a 
statue  on  its  pedestal.  His  gestures  had  not  the 
natural  grace  of  Phillips 's  or  the  more  studied 
elegance  of  Everett,  but  he  atoned  for  these  de- 
ficencies  by  the  manly  earnestness  of  his  deliv 
ery.  He  made  an  impression  on  the  highly  cul 
tivated  men  and  women  who  composed  his 
audience  which  they  always  remembered. 

The  question  has  often  been  raised  by  the 
older  abolitionists,  Why  did  not  Sumner  take 
an  earlier  interest  in  the  anti-slavery  struggle  ? 
The  answer  is  twofold.  That  he  did  not  join 
the  Free-soilers  in  1844  was  most  probably 
owing  to  the  influence  of  Judge  Story,  who  had 
already  marked  Sumner  out  for  the  Supreme 
Bench,  and  wished  him  to  concentrate  his  ener 
gies  in  that  direction.  His  friends,  too,  at  this 


190  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

time — Hillard,  Felton,  Liebe,  and  even  Long 
fellow — were  either  opposed  to  introducing  the 
slavery  question  into  politics  or  practically  in 
different  to  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  Sumner  never  could  agree 
with  Garrison's  position  on  this  question.  He 
held  the  Constitution  in  too  great  respect  to 
admit  that  it  was  an  agreement  with  death  and 
a  government  with  the  devil.  He  believed  that 
the  founders  of  the  Constitution  were  opposed 
to  slavery,  and  that  the  expression,  "  persons 
held  to  labor, ' '  was  good  evidence  of  this.  One 
of  his  finest  orations  in  the  Senate  was  intended 
to  prove  this  point.  Furthermore  he  perceived 
the  futility  of  Garrison's  idea — and  this  was 
afterwards  disproved  by  the  war — that  if  it 
were  not  for  the  National  Government  the 
slaves  would  rise  in  rebellion  and  so  obtain  their 
freedom.  '  He  always  asserted  that  slavery 
would  be  abolished  under  the  Constitution  or 
not  at  all.  Like  Abraham  Lincoln  he  waited  for 
his  time  to  come. 

Charles  Sumner  was  the  reply  that  Massa 
chusetts  made  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  a 
telling  reply  it  was.  Unlike  his  legal  contem 
poraries  he  recognized  the  law  as  a  revolution 
ary  act  which,  unless  it  was  successfully  op 
posed,  would  strike  a  death-blow  at  American 
freedom.  He  saw  that  it  could  only  be  met  by 
counter-revolution,  and  he  prepared  his  mind 


SUMNER  191 

for  the  consequences.  It  was  only  at  such  a 
time  that  so  uncompromising  a  statesman  as 
Sumner  could  have  entered  into  political  life; 
for  the  possibility  of  compromise  had  passed 
away  with  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus,  and  Sumner 's  policy  of  "no  compro 
mise  "  was  the  one  which  brought  the  slavery 
question  to  a  successful  issue.  For  fifteen  years 
in  Congress  he  held  to  that  policy  as  faithfully 
as  a  planet  to  its  course,  and  those  who  differed 
with  him  were  left  in  the  rear. 

Sumner 's  first  difference  was  with  his  con 
servative  friends,  and  especially  with  his  law- 
partner,  George  S.  Hillard,  a  brilliant  man  in 
his  way,  and  for  an  introductory  address  with 
out  a  rival  in  Boston.  Hillard  was  at  heart  as 
anti-slavery  as  Sumner,  and  his  wife  had  even 
assisted  fugitive  slaves,  but  he  was  swathed  in 
the  bands  of  fashionable  society,  and  he  lacked 
the  courage  to  break  loose  from  them.  He  ad 
hered  to  the  Whigs  and  was  relegated  to  pri 
vate  life.  They  parted  without  acrimony,  and 
Sumner  never  failed  to  do  his  former  friend  a 
service  when  he  found  an  opportunity. 

His  difference  with  Felton  was  of  a  more 
serious  kind.  Emerson,  perhaps,  judged  Fel 
ton  too  severely, — a  man  of  ardent  tempera 
ment  who  was  always  in  danger  of  saying  more 
than  he  intended. 

Sumner 's  election  to  the  Senate  was  a  chance 


192  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

in  ten  thousand.  It  is  well  known  that  at  first 
he  declined  to  be  a  candidate.  He  did  not  think 
he  was  fitted  for  the  position,  and  when  Caleb 
Gushing  urged  him  to  court  the  favor  of  for 
tune  he  said:  "I  will  not  leave  my  chair  to 
become  United  States  Senator. "  Whatever 
vanity  there  might  be  in  the  man,  he  was  en 
tirely  free  from  the  ambition  for  power  and 
place. 

There  were  several  prominent  public  men  at 
the  time  who  would  have  given  all  they  owned 
for  the  position,  but  they  were  set  aside  for  the 
man  who  did  not  want  it, — the  bold  jurist  who 
dared  to  set  himself  against  the  veteran  states 
men  of  his  country.  It  reads  like  a  Bible-tale, 
or  the  story  of  Cincinnatus  taken  from  his  plow 
to  become  dictator. 

The  gates  of  his  alma  mater  were  now  closed 
to  Sumner,  not  only  during  his  life  but  even 
long  after  that.  Such  is  the  fate  of  revolu 
tionary  characters,  that  they  tear  asunder  old 
and  familiar  bonds  in  order  to  contract  new  ties. 
In  Washington  he  found  a  broader  and  more 
vigorous  life,  if  less  cultivated,  and  the  Free- 
soil  leaders  with  whom  he  now  came  in  contact 
in  his  own  State  were  much  more  akin  to  his 
own  nature  than  Story,  and  Felton,  and  Hil- 
lard.  Sumner  was  never  popular  in  Washing 
ton,  as  he  had  been  among  the  English  liberals 
and  Cambridge  men  of  letters ;  but  he  was  re- 


SUMNER  193 

spected  on  all  sides  for  his  fearlessness,  his 
ability,  and  the  veracity  of  his  statements.  His 
previous  life  now  proved  a  great  advantage  to 
him  in  most  respects,  but  he  had  become  accus 
tomed  to  dealing  and  conversing  with  a  certain 
class  of  men,  and  this  made  it  difficult  for  him 
to  assimilate  himself  to  a  wholly  different  class. 
Sumner 's  ardent  temperament  required  con 
stant  self-control  in  this  new  and  trying  posi 
tion  ;  and  a  man  who  continually  reflects  before 
hand  on  his  own  actions  acquires  an  appearance 
of  greater  reserve  than  a  person  of  really  cold 
nature. 

Seward  had  thus  far  been  the  leader  of  the 
Free-soil  and  Republican  parties,  not  only  be 
fore  the  country  at  large  but  in  the  Senate. 
It  was  soon  found,  however,  that  Sumner  was 
not  only  a  more  effective  speaker,  but  possessed 
greater  resources  for  debate.  Judge  Story  had 
noticed  long  before  that  facts  were  so  carefully 
and  systematically  arranged  in  Sumner 's  mind 
that  whatever  spring  was  touched  he  could  al 
ways  respond  to  the  subject  with  a  full  and 
exact  statement.  He  was  like  a  librarian  who 
could  lay  his  hand  on  the  book  he  wanted  with 
out  having  to  look  for  it  in  the  catalogue, — and 
this  upon  a  scale  which  seems  almost  incredible. 
Webster  possessed  the  same  faculty,  but  united 
it  with  a  sense  of  artistic  beauty  which  Sumner 
could  not  equal. 

13 


194  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Sumner,  however,  was  the  best  orator  in  Con 
gress  at  this  time,  as  well  as  the  best  legal  au 
thority.  On  all  constitutional  questions  it  was 
felt  that  he  had  Judge  Story's  support  behind 
him.  His  oration  on  "Freedom  National, 
Slavery  Sectional,7'  was  a  revelation,  not  only 
to  the  opposition,  but  to  his  own  party.  From 
that  time  forth,  he  became  the  spokesman  of  his 
party  on  all  the  more  important  questions. 

It  frequently  happens  that  the  essential  char 
acter  of  a  government  changes  while  its  form 
remains  the  same.  In  1801  France  was  nom 
inally  a  Republic,  but  its  administration  was 
Imperial.  In  1853  the  United  States  ceased  to 
be  a  democracy  and  became  an  oligarchy,  gov 
erned  by  thirty  thousand  slave-holders, — until 
the  people  reconquered  their  rights  on  the  field 
of  battle.  Accustomed  to  despotic  power  in 
their  own  States  for  more  than  two  generations, 
and  justifying  themselves  always  by  divine 
right,  the  slave-holders  possessed  all  the  self- 
confidence,  pretension,  and  arrogance  of  the 
old  French  nobility.  They  were  a  self-deluded 
class  of  men,  of  all  classes  the  most  difficult  to 
deal  with,  and  Sumner  was  the  Mirabeau  who 
faced  them  at  Washington  and  who  pricked  the 
bubble  of  their  Olympian  pretensions  by  a  most 
pitiless  exposure  of  their  true  character. 

Those  men  had  come  to  believe  that  the 
ownership  of  slaves  was  equivalent  to  a  patent 


SUMNER  195 

of  nobility,  and  they  were  encouraged  in  this 
monarchical  illusion  by  the  nobility  of  Europe. 
In  Disraeli's  "Lothair"  an  English  duke  is  made 
to  say:  "I  consider  an  American  with  large 
estates  in  the  South  a  genuine  aristocrat. ' '  The 
pretension  was  ridiculous,  and  the  only  way  to 
combat  it  was  to  make  it  appear  so.  Sumner 
characterized  Butler,  of  South  Carolina,  and 
Douglas,  of  Illinois,  who  was  their  northern 
man  of  business,  as  the  Don  Quixote  and  Sancho 
Panza  of  an  antiquated  cause.  The  satire  hit 
its  mark  only  too  exactly;  and  two  days  later 
Sumner  was  assaulted  for  it  in  an  assassin-like 
manner, — struck  on  the  head  from  behind  while 
writing  at  his  desk,  and  left  senseless  on  the 
floor.  Sumner  was  considered  too  low  in  the 
social  scale  for  the  customary  challenge  to  a 
duel,  and  there  was  no  court  in  Washington  that 
would  take  cognizance  of  the  outrage. 

The  following  day,  when  Wilson  made  the 
most  eloquent  speech  of  his  life  in  an  indignant 
rebuke  to  Butler  and  Brooks,  Butler  started 
from  his  seat  to  attack  him,  but  was  held  back 
by  his  friends.  They  might  as  well  have  allowed 
him  to  go,  for  Wilson  was  a  man  of  enormous 
strength  and  could  easily  have  handled  any 
Southerner  upon  the  floor. 

In  "The  Crime  against  Kansas "  there  are 
two  or  three  sentences  which  Sumner  after 
wards  expunged,  and  this  shows  that  he  regret- 


196  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

ted  having  said  them ;  but  it  is  the  greatest  of 
his  orations,  and  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne  is 
the  only  Congressional  address  with  which  it 
can  be  compared.  One  is  in  fact  the  sequence 
of  the  other ;  Webster 's  is  the  flower,  and  Sum 
ner 's  the  fruit;  the  former  directed  against 
the  active  principle  of  sedition,  and  the  latter 
against  its  consequences;  and  both  were  di 
rected  against  South  Carolina,  where  the  war 
originated.  Sumner 's  speech  has  not  the  finely 
sculptured  character  of  Webster's,  but  its  archi 
tectural  structure  is  grand  and  impressive. 
His  Baconian  division  of  the  various  excuses 
that  were  made  for  the  Kansas  outrages  into 
"the  apology  tyrannical,  the  apology  imbecile, 
the  apology  absurd,  and  the  apology  infamous," 
was  original  and  pertinent. 

Preston  S.  Brooks  only  lived  about  six 
months  after  his  assault  on  Sumner,  and  some 
of  the  abolitionists  thought  he  died  of  a  guilty 
conscience.  Both  in  feature  and  expression  he 
bore  a  decided  likeness  to  J.  Wilkes  Booth,  the 
assassin  of  President  Lincoln.  It  might  have 
proved  the  death  of  Sumner,  but  for  the  devo 
tion  of  his  Boston  physician,  Dr.  Marshall  S. 
Perry,  who  went  to  him  without  waiting  to  be 
telegraphed  for.  It  was  also  fortunate  for  him 
that  his  brother  George,  a  very  intelligent  man, 
happened  to  be  in  America  instead  of  Europe, 
where  he  lived  the  greater  part  of  his  life. 


SUMNER  197 

The  assault  on  Sunnier  strengthened  the  Be- 
publican  party,  and  secured  his  re-election  to 
the  Senate ;  but  it  produced  nervous  irritation 
of  the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  a  disorder  which 
can  only  be  cured  under  favorable  conditions, 
and  even  then  is  likely  to  return  if  the  patient  is 
exposed  to  a  severe  mental  strain.  Sumner 's 
cure  by  Dr.  Brown-Sequard  was  considered  a 
remarkable  one,  and  has  a  place  in  the  history 
of  medicine.  The  effect  of  bromide  and  ergot 
was  then  unknown,  and  the  doctor  made  such 
good  use  of  his  cauterizing-iron  that  on  one 
occasion,  at  least,  Sumner  declared  that  he 
could  not  endure  it  any  longer.  Neither  could 
he  tell  positively  whether  it  was  this  treatment 
or  the  baths  which  he  afterwards  took  at  Aix- 
les-Bains  that  finally  cured  him.  His  own  calm 
temperament  and  firmness  of  mind  may  have 
contributed  to  this  as  much  as  Dr.  Brown- 
Sequard. 

When  Sumner  returned  to  Boston,  early  in 
1860,  all  his  friends  went  to  Dr.  S.  Gr.  Howe  to 
know  if  he  was  really  cured,  and  Howe  said: 
' '  He  is  a  well  man,  but  he  will  never  be  able  to 
make  another  two  hours '  speech. ' '  Yet  Sumner 
trained  himself  and  tested  his  strength  so  care 
fully  that  in  the  following  spring  he  delivered 
his  oration  on  the  barbarism  of  slavery,  more 
than  an  hour  in  length,  before  the  Senate ;  and 
in  1863  he  made  a  speech  three  hours  in  length, 


198  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

a  herculean  effort  that  has  never  been  equalled, 
except  by  Hamilton's  address  before  the  Con 
stitutional  Convention  of  1787. 

I  remember  Sumner  in  the  summer  of  1860 
walking  under  my  father's  grape  trellis,  when 
the  vines  were  in  blossom,  with  his  arms  above 
his  head,  and  saying:  "This  is  like  the  south 
of  France."  To  think  of  Europe,  its  art,  his 
tory,  and  scenery,  was  his  relaxation  from  the 
cares  and  excitement  of  politics ;  but  there  were 
many  who  did  not  understand  this,  and  looked 
upon  it  as  an  affectation.  Sumner  in  his  least 
serious  moments  was  often  self-conscious,  but 
never  affected.  He  talked  of  himself  as  an  inno 
cent  child  talks.  On  all  occasions  he  was  thor 
oughly  real  and  sincere,  and  he  would  some 
times  be  as  much  abashed  by  a  genuine  compli 
ment  as  a  maiden  of  seventeen. 

At  the  same  time  Sumner  was  so  great  a  man 
that  it  was  simply  impossible  to  disguise  it, 
and  he  made  no  attempt  to  do  this.  The  prin 
ciple  that  all  men  are  created  equal  did  not 
apply  in  his  case.  To  realize  this  it  was  only 
necessary  to  see  him  and  Senator  Wilson  to 
gether.  Wilson  was  also  a  man  of  exceptional 
ability,  and  yet  a  stranger,  who  did  not  know 
him  by  sight,  might  have  conversed  with  him 
on  a  railway  train  without  suspecting  that  he 
was  a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate; 
but  this  could  not  have  happened  in  Sumner 's 


SUMNER  199 

case.  Every  one  stared  at  him  as  he  walked 
the  streets;  and  he  could  not  help  becoming 
conscious  of  this.  That  there  were  moments 
when  he  seemed  to  reflect  with  satisfaction  on 
his  past  life  his  best  friends  could  not  deny ;  but 
the  vanity  that  is  born  of  a  frivolous  spirit  was 
not  in  him.  He  was  more  like  a  Homeric  hero 
than  a  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  and  considering  the 
work  he  had  to  do  it  was  better  on  the  whole 
that  he  should  be  so. 

He  carried  the  impracticable  theory  of  social 
equality  to  an  extent  beyond  that  of  most  Amer 
icans,  and  yet  he  was  frequently  complained 
of  for  his  reserve  and  aristocratic  manners. 
The  range  of  his  acquaintance  was  the  widest 
of  any  man  of  his  time.  It  extended  from  Lord 
Brougham  to  J.  B.  Smith,  the  mulatto  caterer 
of  Boston,  who,  like  many  of  his  race,  was  a 
person  of  gentlemanly  deportment,  and  was 
always  treated  by  Sumner  as  a  valued  friend. 
As  the  champion  of  the  colored  race  in  the  Sen 
ate  this  was  diplomatically  necessary;  but  to 
the  rank  and  file  of  his  own  party  he  was  less 
gracious.  He  had  not  grown  up  among  them, 
but  had  entered  politics  at  the  top,  so  that  even 
their  faces  were  unfamiliar  to  him.  The  repre 
sentatives  of  Massachusetts,  who  voted  for  him 
at  the  State  House,  were  sometimes  chagrined 
at  the  coldness  of  his  recognition, — a  coldness 
that  did  not  arise  from  lack  of  sympathy,  but 


200  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

from  ignorance  of  the  individual.  Before  Sum- 
ner  could  treat  a  stranger  in  a  friendly  manner, 
he  wished  to  know  what  sort  of  a  person  he  had 
to  deal  with.  There  is  a  kind  of  insincerity  in 
universal  cordiality, — like  that  of  the  candidate 
who  is  seeking  to  obtain  votes. 

A  recent  writer,  who  complains  of  Sumner's 
lack  of  graciousness,  would  do  well  to  ask  his 
conscience  what  the  reason  for  it  was.  If  he 
will  drop  the  three  last  letters  of  his  own  name 
the  solution  will  be  apparent  to  him. 

The  more  Sumner  became  absorbed  in  public 
affairs  the  less  he  seemed  to  be  suited  to  gen 
eral  society, — or  general  society  to  him.  He 
was  always  ready  to  talk  on  those  subjects  that 
interested  him,  but  in  general  conversation,  in 
the  pleasant  give-and-take  of  wit  and  anecdote, 
he  did  not  feel  so  much  at  home  as  he  had  in  his 
Cambridge  days.  His  thoughts  were  too  seri 
ous,  and  the  tendency  of  his  mind  was  argu 
mentative. 

Every  man  is  to  a  certain  extent  the  victim 
of  his  occupation;  and  the  formalities  of  the 
Senate  were  ever  tightening  their  grasp  on 
Sumner's  mode  of  life.  One  afternoon,  as  he 
was  leaving  Dr.  Howe's  garden  at  South  Bos 
ton,  the  doctor's  youngest  daughter  ran  out 
from  the  house,  and  called  to  him,  l '  Good-bye, 
Mr.  Sumner."  His  back  was  already  turned, 
but  he  faced  about  like  an  officer  on  parade,  and 


SUMNER  201 

said  with  formal  gravity:  "Good  evening, 
child,"  so  that  Mrs.  Howe  could  not  avoid 
laughing  at  him.  Yet  Sumner  was  fond  of  chil 
dren  in  his  youth.  L.  Maria  Child  heard  of  this 
incident  and  made  good  use  of  it  in  one  of  her 
story-books. 

The  grand  fact  in  Sumner 's  character,  how 
ever,  rests  beyond  dispute  that  he  never  aspired 
to  the  Presidency.  That  lingering  Washington 
malady  which  victimized  Clay,  Webster,  Cal- 
houn,  Seward,  Chase,  Sherman,  and  Elaine,  and 
made  them  appear  almost  like  sinners  in  tor 
ment,  never  attacked  Sumner.  He  had  accepted 
office  as  a  patriotic  duty,  and,  like  Washington, 
he  was  ready  to  resign  it  whenever  his  work 
would  be  done. 

Sumner 's  speech  on  the  barbarism  of  slavery, 
timed  as  it  was  to  meet  the  Baltimore  conven 
tion,  was  evidently  intended  to  drive  a  wedge 
into  the  split  between  the  Northern  and  South 
ern  Democrats,  but  it  also  must  have  encour 
aged  the  secession  movement.  Sumner,  how 
ever,  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  this,  after  the 
indignity  he  had  suffered.  That  a  high  member 
of  the  Government  could  have  been  assaulted 
with  impunity  in  open  day  indicated  a  condition 
of  affairs  in  the  United  States  not  unlike  that 
of  France  at  the  time  when  Count  Tollendal  was 
judicially  murdered  by  Louis  XV.  Washing 
ton  City  was  an  oligarchical  despotism. 


202  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

A  dark  cloud  hung  over  the  Republic  during 
the  winter  of  1860-  '61.  The  impending  dan 
ger  was  that  war  would  break  out  before  Lin 
coln  could  be  inaugurated.  Such  secrecy  was 
observed  by  the  Eepublican  leaders  that  even 
Horace  Greeley  could  not  fathom  their  inten 
tions.  Late  in  December  John  A.  Andrew  and 
George  L.  Stearns  went  to  Washington  to  sur 
vey  the  ground  for  themselves,  and  the  latter 
wrote  to  William  Robinson,  "The  watchword 
is,  keep  quiet."  He  probably  obtained  this 
from  Sumner,  and  it  gives  the  key  to  the  whole 
situation. 

It  demolishes  Von  Hoist's  finely-spun  melo 
dramatic  theory  in  regard  to  that  period  of  our 
history,  in  which  he  finally  compares  the  condi 
tion  of  the  United  States  to  a  drowning  man 
who  sees  lurid  flames  before  his  eyes.  In  the 
Republican  and  Union  parties  there  were  all 
shades  of  compromise  sentiment, — from  those 
who  were  ready  to  sacrifice  anything  in  order  to 
prevent  secession,  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  who 
was  only  willing  to  surrender  the  barren  and 
unpopulated  State  of  New  Mexico  to  the  slave 
holders.*  But  Sumner,  Wade,  Trumbull,  Wil 
son,  and  King  stood  together  like  a  rocky  coast 
against  which  the  successive  waves  of  compro 
mise  dashed  without  effect.  Von  Hoist  was  noti- 

*  A  not  unreasonable  proposition. 


SUMNER  203 

fied  of  this  fact  years  before  the  last  volume  of 
his  history  was  published,  but  he  disregarded 
it  evidently  because  it  interfered  with  his  fa 
vorite  theory. 

The  last  of  January,  however,  a  report  was 
circulated  in  Boston  that  Sumner  had  joined 
the  compromisers  for  the  sake  of  consistency 
with  the  peace  principles  which  he  had  advo 
cated  in  his  Fourth  of  July  oration.  Boston 
newspapers  made  the  most  of  this,  although  it 
did  not  seem  likely  to  Sumner 's  friends,  and 
George  L.  Stearns  finally  wrote  to  him  for  per 
mission  to  make  a  denial  of  it.  Sumner  first 
replied  to  him  by  telegraph  saying:  "I  am 
against  sending  commissioners  to  treat  of  sur 
render  by  the  North.  Stand  firm."  Then  he 
wrote  him  this  memorable  letter. 

WASHINGTON,  3d  Feb.,  '61. 
MY  DEAK  SIE: 

There  are  but  few  who  stand  rooted,  like  the 
oak,  against  a  storm.  This  is  the  nature  of 
man.  Let  us  be  patient. 

.  My  special  trust  is  this :  No  possible  com 
promise  or  concession  will  be  of  the  least  avail. 
Events  are  hastening  which  will  supersede  all 
such  things.  This  will  save  us.  But  I  like  to 
see  Mass,  in  this  breaking  up  of  the  Union  ever 
true.  God  keep  her  from  playing  the  part  of 
Judas  or — of  Peter !  You  may  all  bend  or  cry 


204  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

pardon — I  will  not.  Here  I  am,  and  I  mean  to 
stand  firm  to  the  last.  God  bless  you ! 

Ever  yours, 

CHAKLES  SUMNEB. 

The  handwriting  of  this  letter  is  magnificent. 
Sumner  had  a  strongly  characteristic  hand  with 
something  of  artistic  grace  in  it,  too;  but  in 
this  instance  his  writing  seems  like  the  external 
expression  of  the  mood  he  was  in  when  he  wrote 
the  letter. 

The  question  may  be  asked,  Why  then  did  not 
Sumner  rise  in  the  Senate  and  make  one  of  his 
telling  speeches  against  compromise  during  that 
long,  wearisome  session!  I  think  the  answer 
will  be  found  in  the  watchword :  ' l  Keep  quiet ! ' ' 
He  perfectly  understood  the  game  that  Seward 
was  playing  and  he  was  too  wise  to  interfere 
with  it.  Seward  was  the  cat  and  compromise 
was  the  mouse.  Whatever  mistakes  he  may 
have  afterwards  made,  Seward  at  this  time 
showed  a  master  hand.  He  encouraged  com 
promise,  but  he  must  have  been  aware  that  the 
proposed  constitutional  amendment,  which 
would  forever  have  prevented  legislation 
against  slavery,  would  not  have  been  confirmed 
by  the  Northern  States.  He  could  easily  count 
the  legislatures  that  would  reject  it.  It  finally 
passed  through  Congress  on  the  last  night  of 


SUMNER  205 

this  session  by  a  single  vote,  and  was  ratified 
by  only  three  States ! 

As  soon  as  Lincoln  was  inaugurated  there 
was  no  more  talk  of  compromise,  and  Seward 
was  firmness  itself.  He  declined  to  receive  the 
disunion  commissioners ;  *  he  compelled  the 
Secretary  of  War  to  reinforce  Fort  Pickens; 
he  overhauled  General  Scott,  who  proved  an 
impediment  to  vigorous  military  operations. 
These  facts  tell  their  own  tale. 

After  Seward  and  Chase  had  left  the  Senate 
Sumner  was  facile  princeps.  Trumbull  was  a 
vigorous  orator  and  a  rough-rider  in  debate,  but 
he  did  not  possess  the  store  of  legal  knowledge 
and  the  vast  fund  of  general  information  which 
Sumner  could  draw  from.  One  has  to  read  the 
fourth  volume  of  Pierce 's  biography  to  realize 
the  dimensions  of  Sumner 's  work  during  the 
period  from  1861  to  1869.  Military  affairs  he 
never  interfered  with,  but  he  was  Chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  the  most  im 
portant  in  the  Senate,  and  in  the  direction  of 
home  politics  he  was  second  to  none.  No  other 
voice  was  heard  so  often  in  the  legislative  halls 
at  Washington,  and  none  heard  with  more  re 
spect.  A  list  of  the  bills  that  he  introduced  and 
carried  through  would  fill  a  long  column. 

The  test  of  statesmanship  is  to  change  from 

*  At  the  same  time  he  coquetted  with  them  unofficially. 


206  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  opposition  to  the  leadership  in  a  Govern 
ment, — from  critical  to  constructive  politics. 
Carl  Schurz  was  a  fine  orator  and  an  effective 
speaker  on  the  minority  side,  but  he  commenced 
life  as  a  revolutionist  and  always  remained  one. 
If  he  had  once  attempted  to  introduce  legisla 
tion,  he  would  have  shown  his  weakness,  exactly 
where  Sumner  proved  his  strength.  Froude 
says  that  to  be  great  in  politics  "  is  to  recognize 
a  popular  movement,  and  to  have  the  courage 
and  address  to  lead  it";  but  three  times  Sum 
ner  planted  his  standard  away  in  advance  of  his 
party,  and  stood  by  it  alone  until  his  followers 
came  up  to  him. 

He  was  always  in  advance  of  his  party,  but 
conspicuously  so  in  regard  to  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  the  exposure  of  Andrew  Johnson's  per 
fidy,  and  the  reconstruction  of  the  rebellious 
States.  "We  might  add  the  annexation  of  San 
Domingo  as  a  fourth;  for  I  believe  there  are 
few  thinking  persons  at  present  who  do  not  feel 
grateful  to  him  for  having  saved  the  country 
from  that  uncomfortable  acquisition. 

The  bill  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  was  introduced  by  Wilson.  Sumner 
did  not  like  to  be  always  proposing  anti-slavery 
measures  himself,  and  he  wished  Wilson  to  have 
the  honor  of  it.  Wilson  would  not,  of  course, 
have  introduced  the  measure  without  consulting 
his  colleague. 


SUMNER  207 

Lincoln  evidently  desired  to  enjoy  the  sole 
honor  of  issuing  the  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  of  1862,  and  he  deserved  to  have  it;  but 
Sumner  thought  it  might  safely  have  been  done 
after  the  battles  of  Fort  Donaldson  and  Shiloh, 
and  the  victories  of  Foote  and  Farragut  on  the 
Mississippi,  six  months  before  it  was  issued; 
and  he  urged  to  have  it  done  at  that  time. 
Whether  his  judgment  was  correct  in  this,  it  is 
impossible  to  decide. 

Early  in  July,  1862,  he  introduced  a  bill  in 
the  Senate  for  the  organization  of  the  "contra 
bands"  and  other  negroes  into  regiments, — a 
policy  suggested  by  Hamilton  in  1780, — and  no 
one  can  read  President  Lincoln's  Message  to 
Congress  in  December,  1864,  without  recogniz 
ing  that  it  was  only  with  the  assistance  of  negro 
troops  that  the  Union  was  finally  preserved. 

In  spite  of  the  continued  differences  between 
Sumner  and  Seward  on  American  questions 
they  worked  together  like  one  man  in  regard  to 
foreign  politics.  Sumner 's  experience  in  Eu 
rope  and  his  knowledge  of  public  men  there  was 
much  more  extensive  than  Seward 's,  and  in  this 
line  he  was  of  invaluable  assistance  to  the  Sec 
retary  of  State. 

Lowell  could  make  a  holiday  of  six  years  at 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  but  during  the  war  it 
was  a  serious  matter  to  be  Minister  to  England. 
In  the  summer  of  1863  affairs  there  had  reached 


208  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

a  climax.  The  Alabama  and  Florida  were  scar 
ing  all  American  ships  from  the  ocean,  and  five 
ironclad  rams,  built  for  the  confederate  govern 
ment,  were  nearly  ready  to  put  to  sea  from  Eng 
lish  ports.  If  this  should  happen  it  seemed 
likely  that  they  would  succeed  in  raising  the 
blockade.  As  a  final  resort  Lincoln  and  Seward 
sent  word  to  Adams  to  threaten  the  British 
Government  with  war  unless  the  rams  were  de 
tained. 

Meanwhile  it  was  necessary  to  brace  up  the 
American  people  to  meet  the  possible  emer 
gency.  On  September  10  Sumner  addressed  an 
audience  of  three  thousand  persons  in  Cooper 
Institute,  New  York,  for  three  hours  on  the  for 
eign  relations  of  the  United  States ;  and  there 
were  few  who  left  the  hall  before  it  was  finished. 
He  arraigned  the  British  Government  for  its 
inconsistency,  its  violation  of  international  law, 
and  its  disregard  of  the  rights  of  navigators. 
It  was  not  only  a  heroic  effort,  but  a  self-sacri 
ficing  one ;  for  Sumner  knew  that  it  would  sep 
arate  him  forever  from  the  larger  number  of  his 
English  friends. 

At  the  same  time  Minister  Adams  had  an 
equally  difficult  task  before  him.  War  with 
England  seemed  to  be  imminent.  He  held  a 
long  consultation  with  Benjamin  Moran,  the 
Secretary  of  Legation,  and  they  finally  con 
cluded  to  see  if  an  opinion  could  be  obtained 


SUMNER  209 

on  the  confederate  rams  from  an  English  legal 
authority.  They  went  to  Sir  Eobert  Colyer,  one 
of  the  lords  of  the  admiralty,  and  asked  him  if 
he  was  willing  to  give  them  an  opinion.  He 
replied  that  he  considered  the  law  above  poli 
tics,  and  that  he  wished  to  do  what  was  right. 
After  investigating  the  subject  Colyer  made  a 
written  statement  to  the  effect  that  the  United 
States  was  wholly  justified  in  demanding  de 
tention  of  the  rams.  Adams  then  placed  this 
opinion  together  with  Lincoln's  notification  be 
fore  the  British  Cabinet,  but  the  papers  were 
returned  to  him  with  a  refusal  of  compliance. 
" There  is  nothing  now,"  said  Adams  to  Moran, 
"but  for  us  to  pack  up  and  go  home";  but 
Moran  replied,  "Let  us  wait  a  little;  while 
there  is  life  there  is  hope";  and  the  same 
evening  Adams  was  notified  that  Her  Majesty's 
Government  still  had  the  subject  under  con 
sideration.  The  rams  proved  a  dead  loss. 

When  Benjamin  Moran  related  this  incident 
to  the  Philadelphia  Hock  Club  after  his  return, 
he  added:  "We  owe  it  to  our  Irish-American 
citizens  as  much  as  to  the  monitors  that  we  did 
not  suffer  from  English  interference. ' ' 

Seward,  and  also  Chase,  wished  to  issue  let 
ters  of  reprisal  to  privateers  to  go  in  search  of 
the  Alabama,  but  Sumner  opposed  this  in  an 
able  speech  on  the  importance  of  maintaining 
a  high  standard  of  procedure  for  the  good 

14 


210  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

reputation  of  the  country;  and  he  carried  his 
point. 

Sumner's  greatest  parliamentary  feat  was 
occasioned  by  TrumbulPs  introduction  of  a  bill 
for  the  reconstruction  of  Louisiana  in  the  win 
ter  of  1864.  There  were  only  ten  thousand  loyal 
white  voters  in  the  State ;  and  nothing  could 
be  more  imprudent  or  prejudicial  than  such  a 
hasty  attempt  at  reorganization  of  the  rebel 
lious  South,  before  the  war  was  fairly  ended. 
It  was  like  a  man  building  an  annex  to  one  side 
of  his  house  while  the  other  side  was  on  fire ; 
yet  it  was  known  to  be  supported  by  Seward, 
and,  as  was  alleged,  also  by  Lincoln.  It  was 
thrust  upon  Congress  at  the  last  moment,  evi 
dently  in  order  to  prevent  an  extended  debate, 
and  Sumner  turned  this  to  his  own  advantage. 
For  two  days  and  nights  his  voice  resounded 
through  the  Senate  chamber,  until,  with  the  as 
sistance  of  his  faithful  allies,  Wade  and  Wilson, 
he  succeeded  in  preventing  the  bill  from  being 
brought  to  a  vote.  It  was  an  extreme  instance 
of  human  endurance,  without  parallel  before  or 
since,  and  may  possibly  have  shortened  Sum 
ner's  life.  Five  weeks  later  President  Lincoln, 
in  his  last  speech,  made  the  significant  proposi 
tion  of  universal  amnesty  combined  with  uni 
versal  suffrage.  Would  that  he  could  have  lived 
to  see  the  completion  of  his  work ! 

Something  may  be  said  here  of  Sumner's  in- 


SUMNER  211 

fluence  with  Mrs.  Lincoln.  If  Don  Piatt  is  to  be 
trusted,  Mrs.  Lincoln  came  to  Washington  with 
a  strong  feeling  of  antipathy  towards  Seward 
and  "those  eastern  abolitionists. "  She  was  born 
in  a  slave  state  and  had  remained  pro-slavery, 
—a  fact  which  did  not  trouble  her  husband  be 
cause  he  did  not  allow  it  to  trouble  him.  Fif 
teen  months  in  Washington  brought  a  decided 
change  in  her  opinions,  and  Sumner  would  seem 
to  have  been  instrumental  in  this  conversion.  It 
is  well  known  that  she  preferred  his  society  to 
that  of  others.  She  had  studied  French  some 
what,  and  he  encouraged  her  to  talk  it  with  him, 
—which  was  looked  upon,  of  course,  as  an  affec 
tation  on  both  sides. 

At  the  time  of  General  McClellan's  removal, 
October,  1862,  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  at  the  Parker 
House  in  Boston.  Sumner  called  on  her  in  the 
forenoon,  and  she  said  at  once:  "I  suppose 
you  have  heard  the  news,  and  that  you  are  glad 
of  it.  So  am  I.  Mr.  Lincoln  told  me  he  expected 
to  remove  him  before  I  left  Washington. ' ' 

Sumner  resembled  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden 
in  this :  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  was  in 
love.  His  devotion  to  the  law  in  early  life,  sur 
rounded  as  he  was  by  interesting  friends,  may 
have  been  antagonistic  to  matrimony.  The 
woman  he  ought  to  have  married  was  the  noble 
daughter  of  his  old  friend,  Cornelius  Felton, 
whom  he  often  met,  but  whose  worth  he  never 


212  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

recognized.  The  marriage  which  he  contracted 
late  in  life  was  not  based  on  enduring  princi 
ples,  and  soon  came  to  a  grievous  end.  It  was 
more  like  the  marriages  that  princes  make  than 
a  true  republican  courtship.  Sumner  appar 
ently  wanted  a  handsome  wife  to  preside  at  his 
dinner  parties  in  Washington,  but  he  chose  her 
from  among  his  opponents  instead  of  from 
among  his  friends. 

Since  there  has  been  much  foolish  talk  upon 
this  subject,  it  may  be  well  to  state  here  that  the 
true  difficulty  between  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sumner 
was  owing  to  the  company  which  he  invited  to 
his  house.  She  only  wished  to  entertain  fash 
ionable  people,  but  a  large  proportion  of  Sum 
ner  's  friends  could  not  be  included  within  these 
narrow  limits.  As  Senator  from  Massachusetts 
that  would  not  do  for  him  at  all.  This  is  the 
explanation  that  was  given  by  Mrs.  Sumner 's 
brother,  and  it  is  without  doubt  the  correct  one ; 
but  women  in  such  cases  are  apt  to  allege  some 
thing  different  from  the  true  reason. 

Sumner  ?s  most  signal  triumph  happened  on 
the  occasion  of  President  Johnson's  first  Mes 
sage  to  Congress  in  January,  1865.  He  rose 
from  his  seat  and  characterized  it  as  a  "white 
washing  document."  That  day  he  stood  alone, 
yet  within  six  weeks  every  Republican  Senator 
was  at  his  side. 

Sumner  knew  how  to  be  silent  as  well  as  to 


SUMNER  213 

talk.  On  one  occasion  he  was  making  a  speech 
in  the  Senate  when  he  suddenly  heard  Schuyler 
Colfax  behind  him  saying,  "This  is  all  very 
good,  Sumner,  but  here  I  have  the  Appropria 
tion  bills  from  the  House,  and  the  Democrats 
know  nothing  about  them."  Sumner  instantly 
resumed  his  seat,  and  the  bills  were  acted  on 
without  serious  opposition.  He  would  some 
times  sit  through  a  dinner  at  the  Bird  Club 
without  saying  very  much,  but  if  he  once  started 
on  a  subject  that  interested  him  there  was  no 
limit  to  it. 

Sumner 's  speech  on  the  "Alabama  claims" 
was  considered  a  failure  because  the  adminis 
tration  did  not  afterwards  support  him ;  and  it 
is  true  that  no  government  would  submit  to  a 
demand  for  adventitious  damages  so  long  as  it 
could  prevent  this;  but  it  was  a  far-reaching 
exposure  of  an  unprincipled  foreign  policy,  and 
this  speech  formed  the  groundwork  for  the 
Treaty  of  Washington  and  the  Geneva  arbitra 
tion.  It  was  a  more  important  case  than  the  set 
tlement  of  the  Northeastern  boundary. 

Sumner  died  the  death  of  a  hero.  The  admin 
istration  of  General  Grant  might  well  be  called 
the  recoil  of  the  cannon :  it  was  the  reactionary 
effect  of  a  great  military  movement  on  civil  af 
fairs.  Sumner  alone  withstood  the  shock  of  it, 
and  he  fought  against  it  for  four  years  like  a 
veteran  on  his  last  line  of  defence,  feeling  vie- 


214  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

tory  was  no  longer  possible.  Many  of  Ms 
friends  found  the  current  too  strong  for  them; 
his  own  party  deserted  him;  even  the  Legisla 
ture  of  his  own  State  turned  against  him  in  a 
senseless  and  irrational  manner.  Still  his  spirit 
was  unconquerable,  and  he  continued  to  face  the 
storm  as  long  as  life  was  in  him.  It  was  a 
magnificent  spectacle. 

It  was  the  last  battlefield  of  a  veteran  war 
rior,  and  although  Sumner  retired  from  it  with 
a  mortal  wound,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  win 
ning  a  glorious  victory.  .  No  end  could  have 
been  more  appropriate  to  such  a  life.  Dulce  et 
decorum  est  pro  patria  mori. 

Since  Richard  Cceur  de  Leon  forgave  Ber 
tram  de  Gordon,  who  caused  his  death,  there 
has  never  been  a  more  magnanimous  man  than 
Charles  Sumner.  Once  when  L.  Maria  Child 
was  anathematizing  Preston  S.  Brooks  in  his 
presence,  he  said:  "You  should  not  blame 
him.  It  was  slavery  and  not  Brooks  that  struck 
me.  If  Brooks  had  been  born  and  brought  up 
in  New  England,  he  would  no  more  have  done 
the  thing  he  did  than  Caleb  Cushing  would  have 
done  it," — Cushing  always  being  his  type  of  a 
pro-slavery  Yankee. 

In  1871  Charles  W.  Slack,  the  editor  of  the 
Boston  Commonwealth,  for  whom  Sumner  had 
obtained  a  lucrative  office,  turned  against  his 
benefactor  in  order  to  save  his  position.  When 


SUMNER  215 

I  spoke  of  this  to  Sumner,  he  said:  "Well,  it 
is  human  nature.  Slack  is  growing  old,  and  if 
he  keeps  his  office  for  the  next  six  years,  he  will 
have  a  competency.  I  have  no  doubt  he  feels 
grateful  to  me,  and  regrets  the  course  he  is  tak 
ing.  "  At  the  same  time,  he  spoke  sadly. 

Sumner  resembled  Lord  Chatham  more 
closely  than  any  statesman  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  He  carried  his  measures  through  by 
pure  force  of  argument  and  clearness  of  fore 
sight.  From  1854  to  1874  it  was  his  policy  that 
prevailed  in  the  councils  of  the  nation.  He  suc 
ceeded  where  others  failed. 

He  defeated  Franklin  Pierce,  Seward,  Trum- 
bull,  Andrew  Johnson,  Hamilton  Fish,  and  even 
Lincoln,  on  the  extradition  of  Mason  and  Slidell. 
He  tied  Johnson  down,  so  that  he  could  only 
move  his  tongue. 

In  considering  Sumner 's  oratory,  we  should 
bear  in  mind  what  Coleridge  said  to  Allston, 
the  painter, — "  never  judge  a  work  of  art  by 
its  defects. "  His  sentences  have  not  the  classic 
purity  of  Webster's,  and  his  delivery  lacked  the 
ease  and  elegance  of  Phillips  and  Everett.  His 
style  was  often  too  florid  and  his  Latin  quo 
tations,  though  excellent  in  themselves,  were 
not  suited  to  the  taste  of  his  audiences.  But 
Sumner  was  always  strong  and  effective,  and 
that  is,  after  all,  the  main  point.  Like  Webster 
he  possessed  a  logical  mind,  and  the  profound 


216  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

earnestness  of  his  nature  gave  an  equally  pro 
found  conviction  to  his  words.  Besides  this, 
Sumner  possessed  the  heroic  element,  as  Pat 
rick  Henry  and  James  Otis  possessed  it.  After 
Webster's  death  there  was  no  American 
speaker  who  could  hold  an  audience  like  him. 

Matthew  Arnold,  in  his  better  days,  said  that 
Burke 's  oratory  was  too  rich  and  overloaded. 
This  is  true,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  Burke  is 
the  only  orator  of  the  eighteenth  century  that 
still  continues  to  be  read.  He  had  a  faulty  de 
livery  and  an  ungainly  figure,  but  if  he  emptied 
the  benches  in  the  House  of  Commons  he 
secured  a  larger  audience  in  coming  gen 
erations.  The  material  of  his  speeches  is  of 
such  a  vital  quality  that  it  possesses  a  value 
wholly  apart  from  the  time  and  occasion  of  its 
delivery. 

Much  the  same  is  true  of  Sumner,  who  would 
have  had  decidedly  the  advantage  of  Burke  so 
far  as  personal  impressiveness  is  concerned. 
His  Phi  Beta  Kappa  address  of  1845  is  so  rich 
in  material  that  it  is  even  more  interesting  to 
read  now  than  when  it  was  first  delivered,  and 
his  remarks  on  Allston  in  that  oration  might  be 
considered  to  advantage  by  every  art  critic  in 
the  country.  It  should  always  be  remembered 
that  a  speech,  like  a  play,  is  written  not  to  be 
read,  but  to  be  acted;  and  those  discourses 
which  read  so  finely  in  the  newspapers  are  not 


SUMNER  217 

commonly  the  ones  that  sounded  the  best  when 
they  were  delivered. 

Great  men  create  great  antagonisms.  The 
antagonism  which  Lincoln  excited  was  concen 
trated  in  Booth's  pistol  shot,  and  the  Mon 
tagues  and  Capulets  became  reconciled  over 
his  bier;  but  the  antagonism  against  Sumner 
still  continues  to  smoke  and  smoulder  like  the 
embers  of  a  dying  conflagration. 


CHEVALIEB   HOWE. 

THE  finest  modern  statue  in  Berlin  is  that  of 
General  Ziethen,  the  great  Hussar  commander 
in  the  Seven  Years'  War.*  He  stands  leaning 
on  his  sabre  in  a  dreamy,  nonchalant  attitude, 
as  if  he  were  in  the  centre  of  indifference  and 
life  had  little  interest  for  him.  Yet  there  never 
was  a  man  more  ready  for  action,  or  more  quick 
to  seize  upon  and  solve  the  nodus  of  any  new 
emergency.  The  Prussian  anecdote -books  are 
full  of  his  exploits  and  hairbreadth  escapes,  a 
number  of  which  are  represented  around  the 
base  of  the  statue.  He  combined  the  intelli 
gence  of  the  skilful  general  with  the  physical 
dexterity  of  an  acrobat. 

Very  much  such  a  man  was  Samuel  Gridley 
Howe,  born  in  Boston  November  10, 1801,  whom 
Whittier  has  taken  as  the  archetype  of  an 
American  hero  in  his  time. 

If  a  transient  guest  at  the  Bird  Club  should 
have  seen  Doctor  Howe  sitting  at  the  table  with 
his  indifferent,  nonchalant  air,  head  leaning 
slightly  forward  and  his  grayish-black  hair 
almost  falling  into  his  eyes,  he  would  never  have 

*  Von  Schliiter's  statue  of  the  Great  Elector  is  of  course 
a  more  magnificent  work  of  art. 
218 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  219 

imagined  that  lie  was  the  man  who  had  fought 
the  Turks  hand-to-hand  like  Cervantes  and  Sir 
John  Smith;  who  had  been  imprisoned  in  a 
Prussian  dungeon;  who  had  risked  his  life  in 
the  July  Revolution  at  Paris;  and  who  had 
taken  the  lead  in  an  equally  important  philan 
thropic  revolution  in  his  own  country. 

Next  to  Sumner  he  is  the  most  distinguished 
member  of  the  club,  even  more  so  than  Andrew 
and  Wilson ;  a  man  with  a  most  enviable  record. 
He  does  not  talk  much  where  many  are  gathered 
together,  but  if  he  hears  an  imprudent  state 
ment,  especially  an  unjust  estimate  of  charac 
ter,  his  eyes  flash  out  from  beneath  the  bushy 
brows,  and  he  makes  a  correction  which  just 
hits  the  nail  on  the  head.  He  is  fond  of  his  own 
home  and  is  with  difficulty  enticed  away  from  it. 
Once  in  awhile  he  will  dash  out  to  Cambridge 
on  horseback  to  see  Longfellow,  but  the  lion- 
huntresses  of  Boston  spread  their  nets  in  vain 
for  him.  He  will  not  even  go  to  the  dinner  par 
ties  for  which  Mrs.  Howe  is  in  constant  demand, 
but  prefers  to  spend  the  evening  with  his  chil 
dren,  helping  them  about  their  school  lessons, 
and  listening  to  the  stories  of  their  everyday 
experiences. 

There  never  was  a  more  modest,  unostenta 
tious  hero ;  and  no  one  has  recorded  his  hair 
breadth  escapes  and  daring  adventures,  for 
those  who  witnessed  them  never  told  the  tale, 


220  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

nor  would  Doctor  Howe  willingly  speak  of  them 
himself.  He  was  of  too  active  a  temperament 
to  be  much  of  a  scholar  in  his  youth,  although  in 
after  life  he  went  through  with  whatever  he 
undertook  in  a  thorough  and  conscientious  man 
ner.  He  went  to  Brown  University,  and  appears 
to  have  lived  much  the  same  kind  of  life  there 
which  Lowell  did  at  Harvard, — full  of  good 
spirits,  admired  by  his  classmates,  as  well  as  by 
the  young  ladies  of  Providence,  and  excep 
tionally  fond  of  practical  jokes ;  always  getting 
into  small  difficulties  and  getting  out  of  them 
again  with  equal  facility.  He  was  so  amiable 
and  warm-hearted  that  nobody  could  help  loving 
him ;  and  so  it  continued  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

He  could  not  himself  explain  exactly  why  he 
joined  the  Greek  Eevolution.  He  had  suffered 
himself  while  at  school  from  the  tyranny  of 
older  boys,  and  this  strengthened  the  sense  of 
right  and  justice  that  had  been  implanted  in  his 
nature.  He  had  not  the  romantic  disposition  of 
Byron;  neither  could  he  have  gone  from  a  de 
sire  to  win  the  laurels  of  Miltiades,  for  he  never 
indicated  the  least  desire  for  celebrity.  It  seems 
more  likely  that  his  adventurous  disposition 
urged  him  to  it,  as  one  man  takes  to  science  and 
another  to  art. 

It  was  certainly  a  daring  adventure  to  enlist 
as  a  volunteer  against  the  Turks.  Byron  might 
expect  that  whatever  advantage  wealth  and  rep- 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  221 

utation  can  obtain  for  an  individual  he  could 
always  count  upon;  but  what  chances  would 
young  Howe  have  in  disaster  or  defeat?  I 
never  heard  that  Byron  did  much  fighting, 
though  he  spent  his  fortune  freely  in  the  cause ; 
and  Doctor  Howe,  as  it  happened,  was  not 
called  upon  to  fight  in  line  of  battle,  though 
he  was  engaged  in  some  pretty  hot  skirmishes 
and  risked  himself  freely. 

He  went  to  Greece  in  the  summer  of  1824  and 
remained  till  after  the  battle  of  Navarino  in 
1827.  Greece  was  saved,  but  the  land  was  a 
desert  and  its  people  starving.  Doctor  Howe 
returned  to  America  to  raise  funds  and  beg 
provisions  for  liberated  Hellas,  in  which  he  was 
remarkably  successful ;  but  we  find  also  that  he 
published  a  history  of  the  Greek  Revolution,  the 
second  edition  of  which  is  dated  1828.  For  this 
he  must  have  collected  the  materials  before 
leaving  Greece;  but  as  it  contains  an  account 
of  the  sea-fight  of  Navarino,  it  must  have  been 
finished  after  his  return  to  America.  The  book 
was  hastily  written,  and  hastily  published.  To 
judge  from  appearances  it  was  hurried  through 
the  press  without  being  revised  either  by  its 
author  or  a  competent  proofreader ;  but  it  is  a 
vigorous,  spirited  narrative,  and  the  best  chron 
icle  of  that  period  in  English.  Would  there  were 
more  such  histories,  even  if  the  writing  be  not 
always  grammatical.  Doctor  Howe  does  not 


222  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

sentimentalize  over  the  ruins  of  Sparta  or 
Plato 's  Academy,  but  he  describes  Greece  as  he 
found  it,  and  its  inhabitants  as  he  knew  them, 
He  possesses  what  so  many  historians  lack,  and 
that  is  the  graphic  faculty.  He  writes  in  a  bet 
ter  style  than  either  Motley  or  Bancroft.  His 
book  ought  to  be  revised  and  reprinted. 

We  quote  from  it  this  clearsighted  descrip 
tion  of  the  preparation  for  a  Grseco-Turkish 
sea-fight : 

"  Soon  the  proud  fleet  of  the  Capitan  Pashaw  was  seen 
coming  down  toward  Samos,  and  the  Greek  vessels  ad 
vanced  to  meet  it.  And  here  one  cannot  but  pause  a  mo 
ment  to  compare  the  two  parties,  and  wonder  at  the  con 
trast  between  them.  On  one  side  bore  down  a  long  line  of 
lofty  ships  whose  very  size  and  weight  seemed  to  give  them 
a  slow  and  stately  motion;  completely  furnished  at  every 
point  for  war;  their  decks  crowded  with  splendidly  armed 
soldiers,  and  their  sides  chequered  with  double  and  triple- 
rows  of  huge  cannon  that  it  seemed  could  belch  forth  a  mass 
of  iron  which  nothing  could  resist.  On  the  other  side  came 
flying  along  the  waves  a  squadron  of  light  brigs  and  schoon 
ers,  beautifully  modelled,  with  sails  of  snowy  white,  and 
with  fancifully  painted  sides,  showing  but  a  single  row  of 
tiny  cannon.  There  seemed  no  possibility  of  a  contest; 
one  fleet  had  only  to  sail  upon  the  other,  and  by  its  very 
weight,  bear  the  vessels  under  water  without  firing  a  gun. 

"  But  the  feelings  which  animated  them  were  very  differ 
ent.  The  Turks  were  clumsy  sailors;  they  felt  ill  at  ease 
and  as  if  in  a  new  element ;  but  above  all,  they  felt  a  dread 
of  Greek  fire-ships,  which  made  them  imagine  every  vessel 
that  approached  them  to  be  one.  The  Greeks  were  at 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  223 

home  on  the  waves, — active  and  fearjess  mariners,  they  knew 
that  they  could  run  around  a  Turkish  frigate  and  not  be 
injured;  they  knew  the  dread  their  enemies  had  of  fire- 
ships,  and  they  had  their  favorite,  the  daring  Kanaris,  with 
them." 

The  heroic  deeds  of  the  modern  Greeks  fully 
equalled  those  of  the  ancients ;  and  the  death  of 
Marco  Bozzaris  was  celebrated  in  all  the  lan 
guages  of  western  Europe.  William  Miiller,  the 
German  poet,  composed  a  volume  of  fine  lyrics 
upon  the  incidents  of  the  Greek  Revolution ;  so 
that  after  his  death  the  Greek  Government  sent 
a  shipload  of  marble  to  Germany  for  the  con 
struction  of  his  monument. 

One  day  Doctor  Howe,  with  a  small  party  of 
followers,  was  anchored  in  a  yawl  off  the  Co 
rinthian  coast,  when  a  Turk  crept  down  to  the 
shore  and  commenced  firing  at  them  from  be 
hind  a  large  tree.  After  he  had  done  this  twice, 
the  doctor  calculated  where  he  would  appear 
the  third  time,  and  firing  at  the  right  moment 
brought  him  down  with  his  face  to  the  earth. 
Doctor  Howe  often  fired  at  Turks  in  action,  but 
this  was  the  only  one  that  he  felt  sure  of  having 
killed;  and  he  does  not  appear  to  have  even 
communicated  the  fact  to  his  own  family. 

After  Doctor  Howe's  triumphant  return  to 
Greece  with  a  cargo  of  provisions  in  1828  he 
was  appointed  surgeon-general  of  the  Greek 
navy,  and  finally,  as  a  reward  for  all  his  ser- 


224  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

vices,  he  received  a  present  of  Byron's  cavalry 
helmet, — certainly  a  rare  trophy.* 

Doctor  Howe's  mysterious  imprisonment  in 
Berlin  in  1832  is  the  more  enigmatical  since 
Berlin  has  generally  been  the  refuge  of  the  op 
pressed  from  other  European  countries.  The 
Huguenots,  expelled  by  Louis  XIV.,  went  to 
Berlin  in  such  numbers  that  they  are  supposed 
by  Menzel  to  have  modified  the  character  of  its 
inhabitants.  The  Salzburg  refugees  were  wel 
comed  in  Prussia  by  Frederick  William  I.,  who 
had  an  official  hanged  for  embezzling  funds  that 
were  intended  for  their  benefit.  In  1770  Fred 
erick  the  Great  gave  asylum  to  the  Jesuits  who 
had  been  expelled  from  every  Catholic  capi 
tal  in  Europe;  and  when  the  brothers  Grimm 
and  other  professors  were  banished  from  Cas- 
sel  for  their  liberalism,  they  were  received  and 
given  positions  by  Frederick  William  IV.  Why 
then  should  the  Prussian  government  have  in 
terfered  with  Doctor  Howe,  after  he  had  com 
pleted  his  philanthropic  mission  to  the  Polish 
refugees?  Why  was  he  not  arrested  in  the 
Polish  camp  when  he  first  arrived  there! 

The  futile  and  tyrannical  character  of  this 
proceeding  points  directly  to  Metternich,  who 
at  that  time  might  fairly  be  styled  the  Tiberias 


*  This  helmet  hung  for  many  years  on  the  hat-tree  at 
Dr.  Howe's  house  in  South  Boston. 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  225 

of  Germany.  The  Greek  Revolution  was  hate 
ful  to  Metternich,  and  he  did  what  he  could  to 
prevent  its  success.  His  intrigues  in  England 
certainly  delayed  the  independence  of  Greece 
for  two  years  and  more.  He  foresaw  clearly 
enough  that  its  independence  would  be  a  con 
stant  annoyance  to  the  Austrian  government,— 
and  so  it  has  proved  down  to  the  present  time. 
Metternich  imagined  intrigues  and  revolution 
in  every  direction ;  and  besides,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  vindictiveness  of  his  nature.  The 
cunning  of  the  fox  is  not  often  combined  with 
the  supposed  magnanimity  of  the  lion. 

The  account  of  his  arrest,  which  Doctor  Howe 
gave  George  L.  Stearns,  differs  very  slightly 
from  that  in  Sanborn's  biography.  According 
to  the  former  he  persuaded  the  Prussian  police, 
on  the  ground  of  decency,  to  remain  outside  his 
door  until  he  could  dress  himself.  In  this  way 
he  gained  time  to  secrete  his  letters.  He  tore 
one  up  and  divided  the  small  pieces  in  various 
places.  While  he  was  doing  this  he  noticed  a 
bust  of  some  king  of  Prussia  on  top  of  the  high 
porcelain  stove  which  forms  a  part  of  the  fur 
niture  of  every  large  room  in  Berlin.  Conclud 
ing  it  must  be  hollow  he  tipped  it  on  edge  and 
inserted  the  rest  of  his  letters  within.  The 
police  never  discovered  this  stratagem,  but  they 
searched  his  room  in  the  most  painstaking  man 
ner,  collecting  all  the  pieces  of  the  letter  he  had 

15 


226  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

torn  up,  so  that  they  read  every  word  of  it. 
Whether  his  letters  were  really  of  a  compro 
mising  character,  or  he  was  only  afraid  that 
they  might  be  considered  so,  has  never  been  ex 
plained. 

The  day  after  his  arrest  he  was  brought  be 
fore  a  tribunal  and  asked  a  multitude  of  ques 
tions,  which  he  appears  to  have  answered  wil 
lingly  enough;  and  a  week  or  more  later  the 
same  examiners  made  a  different  set  of  inqui 
ries  of  him,  all  calculated  to  throw  light  upon  his 
former  answers.  Doctor  Howe  admitted  after 
wards  that  if  he  had  attempted  to  deceive  them 
they  would  certainly  have  discovered  the  fact. 
He  was  in  prison  five  weeks,  for  which  the  Prus 
sian  government  had  the  impudence  to  charge 
him  board ;  and  why  President  Jackson  did  not 
demand  an  apology  and  reparation  for  this  out 
rage  on  a  United  States  citizen  is  not  the  least 
mysterious  part  of  the  affair. 

A  good  Samaritan  does  not  always  find  a 
good  Samaritan.  After  his  return  to  Paris 
Doctor  Howe  went  to  England,  but  was  taken 
so  severely  ill  on  the  way  that  he  did  not  know 
what  might  have  become  of  him  but  for  an 
English  passenger  with  whom  he  had  become 
acquainted  and  who  carried  him  to  his  own 
house  and  cared  for  him  until  he  was  fully 
recovered.  This  excellent  man,  name  now 
forgotten,  had  a  charming  daughter  who  ma- 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  227 

terially  assisted  in  Howe's  convalescence,  and 
he  said  afterwards  that  if  he  had  not  been 
strongly  opposed  to  matrimony  at  that  time 
she  would  probably  have  become  his  wife.  He 
was  not  married  until  ten  years  later;  but  he 
always  remembered  this  incident  as  one  of  the 
pleasantest  in  his  life. 

The  true  hero  never  rests  on  his  laurels. 
Doctor  Howe  had  no  sooner  returned  from 
Europe  than  he  set  himself  to  work  on  a  de 
sign  he  had  conceived  in  Paris  for  the  instruc 
tion  of  the  blind.  Next  to  Doctor  Morton's 
discovery  of  etherization,  there  has  been  no 
undertaking  equal  to  this  for  the  amelioration 
of  human  misery.  He  brought  the  best  meth 
ods  from  Europe,  and  improved  upon  them. 
Beginning  at  first  in  a  small  way,  and  with 
such  means  as  he  could  obtain  from  the  mer 
chants  of  Boston,  he  went  on  to  great  achieve 
ments.  He  had  the  most  difficulty  in  dealing 
with  legislative  appropriations  and  enact 
ments,  for  as  he  was  not  acquainted  with  the 
ruling  class  in  Massachusetts,  they  conse 
quently  looked  upon  him  with  suspicion.  He 
not  only  made  the  plan,  but  he  carried  it  out; 
he  organized  the  institution  at  South  Boston 
and  set  the  machinery  in  motion. 

The  story  of  Laura  Bridgman  is  a  tale  told  in 
many  languages.  The  deaf  and  blind  girl  whom 
Doctor  Howe  taught  to  read  and  to  think  soon 


228  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

became  as  celebrated  as  Franklin  or  Webster. 
She  was  between  seven  and  eight  years  old 
when  he  first  discovered  her  near  Hanover,  N. 
H.,  and  for  five  years  and  a  half  she  had  neither 
seen  nor  heard.  It  is  possible  that  she  could 
remember  the  external  world  in  a  dim  kind  of 
way,  and  she  must  have  learned  to  speak^a 
few  words  before  she  lost  her  hearing.  ^Doc 
tor  Howe  taught  her  the  names  of  different 
objects  by  pasting  them  in  raised  letters  on 
the  objects  about  her,  and  he  taught  her  to 
spell  by  means  of  separate  blocks  with  the 
letters  upon  them.  She  then  was  taught  to 
read  after  the  usual  method  of  instructing  the 
blind,  and  communicated  with  her  fingers  after 
the  manner  of  deaf  mutes.  Doctor  Howe  said 
in  his  report  of  the  case : 

"  Hitherto,  the  process  had  been  mechanical,  and  the 
success  about  as  great  as  teaching  a  very  knowing  dog  a 
variety  of  tricks.  The  poor  child  had  sat  in  mute  amaze 
ment  and  patiently  imitated  everything  her  teacher  did; 
but  now  the  truth  began  to  flash  upon  her;  her  intellect 
began  to  work;  she  perceived  that  here  was  a  way  by 
which  she  could  herself  make  up  a  sign  of  anything  that 
was  in  her  own  mind,  and  show  it  to  another  mind,  and  at 
once  her  countenance  lighted  up  with  a  human  expression; 
it  was  no  longer  a  dog  or  parrot, — it  was  an  immortal  spirit, 
eagerly  seizing  upon  a  new  link  of  union  with  other 
spirits !" 

Finally  she  was  educated  in  the  meaning  of 
the  simplest  abstract  terms  like  right  and 


CHEVALIER    HOWE  229 

wrong,  happy  and  sad,  crooked  and  straight, 
and  in  this  she  evinced  great  intelligence,  for 
she  described  being  alone  as  all  one,  and  being 
together  all  two, — the  original  meaning  of  alone 
and  altogether,  which  few  persons  think  of.  In 
trying  to  express  herself  where  she  found  some 
difficulty  she  made  use  of  agglutinative  forms  of 
speech.* 

The  education  of  Laura  has  rare  value  as  a 
psychological  study ;  for  it  proves  incontestably 
that  mind  is  a  thing  in  itself,  and  not  merely  a 
combination  of  material  forces,  as  the  philoso 
phers  of  our  time  would  have  us  believe.  Laura 
Bridgman's  mind  was  there,  though  wholly  un 
able  to  express  itself,  and  so  soon  as  the  magic 
key  was  turned,  she  developed  as  rapidly  and 
intelligently  as  other  girls  of  her  age.  She 
soon  became  much  more  intelligent  than  the 
best  trained  dog  who  has  all  his  senses  in  an 
acute  condition ;  and  she  developed  a  sensibility 
toward  those  about  her  such  as  Indian  or  Hot 
tentot  girls  of  the  same  age  would  not  have  done 
at  all.  She  soon  began  to  indicate  that  sense 
of  order  which  is  the  first  step  on  the  stairway 
of  civilization.  If  these  qualities  had  not  been 
in  her  they  never  could  have  come  out. 

Why  is  if;  that  so  many  superior  women  re 
main  unmarried,  and  why  do  men  of  superior 

*  Like  the  Aztecs,  Kanackers  and  other  primitive  races. 


230  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

intellect  and  exceptional  character  so  often 
mate  themselves  with  weak  or  narrow-minded 
women?  That  a  diffident  man,  with  a  taste  for 
playing  on  the  flute,  should  be  captured  by  a 
virago,  is  not  so  remarkable, — that  is  his  nat 
ural  weakness;  but  it  is  also  true  that  the 
worthiest  man  often  chooses  indifferently. 
This  thing  they  call  matrimony  is  in  fact  like 
diving  for  pearls :  you  bring  up  the  oyster,  but 
what  it  contains  does  not  appear  until  after 
ward.  A  friend  of  Sumner,  who  imagined  his 
wife  had  a  beautiful  nature  because  she  was 
fond  of  wild-flowers,  discovered  too  late  that  she 
cared  more  for  botany  than  for  her  husband. 

Chevalier  Howe  met  with  better  fortune.  He 
waited  long  and  to  good  purpose.  It  was  fitting 
that  such  a  man  should  marry  a  poetess;  and 
he  found  her,  not  in  her  rose-garden  or  some 
romantic  sylvan  retreat,  but  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  Miss  Julia  Ward  was  the  daughter,  as 
she  once  styled  herself,  of  the  Bank  of  Com 
merce,  but  her  mind  was  not  bent  on  money  or  a 
fashionable  life.  She  was  graceful,  witty  and 
charming  in  the  drawing-room;  but  there  was 
also  a  serious  vein  in  her  nature  which  could 
only  be  satisfied  by  earnest  thought  and  study. 
She  went  from  one  book  to  another  through  the 
whole  range  of  critical  scholarship,  disdaining 
everything  that  was  not  of  the  best  quality. 
She  soon  knew  so  much  that  the  young  men  be- 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  231 

came  afraid  of  her,  but  she  cared  less  for  their 
admiration  than  for  her  favorite  authors. 
Above  all,  the  deep  religious  vein  in  her  nature, 
which  never  left  her,  served  as  a  balance  to  her 
romantic  disposition.  Her  first  admirer  is  said 
to  have  been  an  eloquent  preacher  who  came  to 
New  York  while  Miss  Ward  was  in  her  teens. 

Another  man  might  have  crossed  Julia 
Ward's  path  and  only  have  remembered  her  as 
a  Summer  friend.  Doctor  Howe  recognized  the 
opportunity,  and  had  no  intention  of  letting  it 
slip.  His  reputation  and  exceptional  character 
attracted  her ;  and  he  wooed  and  won  her  with 
the  same  courage  that  he  fought  the  Greeks. 
Her  sister  married  Crawford,  the  best  sculptor 
of  his  time,  whom  Sumner  helped  to  fame  and 
fortune. 

Doctor  Howe's  wedding  journey,  which  in 
cluded  a  complete  tour  of  Europe,  seems  to 
have  been  the  first  rest  that  he  had  taken  in 
twenty  years.  Such  wedding  journeys  are  fre 
quent  enough  now,  but  it  is  a  rare  bride  that 
finds  the  doors  of  distinguished  houses  opened 
to  her  husband  from  Edinburgh  to  Athens. 
Was  it  not  a  sufficient  reward  for  any  man's 
service  to  humanity! 

For  that  matter  Doctor  Howe's  lifelong  work 
received  comparatively  slight  recognition  or  re 
ward.  A  few  medals  were  sent  to  him  from 
Europe, — a  gold  one  from  the  King  of  Prussia, 


232  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

—and  he  was  always  looked  upon  in  Boston  as  a 
distinguished  citizen;  but  his  vocation  at  the 
Blind  Asylum  withdrew  him  from  the  public 
eye,  and  the  public  soon  forgets  what  happened 
yesterday.  What  a  blaze  of  enthusiasm  there 
was  for  Admiral  Dewey  in  1899,  and  how  coldly 
his  name  was  received  as  a  presidential  candi 
date  one  year  later ! 

Doctor  Howe  was  once  nominated  for  Con 
gress  as  a  forlorn  hope,  and  his  name  was 
thrice  urged  unavailingly  for  foreign  appoint 
ments.  He  certainly  deserved  to  be  made  Min 
ister  to  Greece,  but  President  Johnson  looked 
upon  him  as  a  very  " ultra  man", — the  real  ob 
jection  being  no  doubt  that  he  was  a  friend  of 
Sumner,  and  the  ^econd  attempt  made  by  Sum- 
ner  himself  was  defeated  by  Hamilton  Fish. 
Doctor  Howe  was  fully  qualified  at  any  time 
to  be  Minister  to^France,  and  as  well  qualified 
as  James  Bussell  Lowell  for  the  English  Mis 
sion;  but  the  appointment  of  such  men  as 
Lowell  and  Howe  has  proved  to  be  a  happy 
accident  rather  than  according  to  the  natural 
order  of  events.  What  reward  did  Doctor 
Morton  ever  obtain,  until  twenty-five  years 
after  his  death  his  name  was  emblazoned  in 
memorial  hall  of  Boston  State  House!  It  is 
an  old  story. 

Yet  Doctor  Howe  may  well  be  considered 
one  of  the  most  fortunate  Americans  of  his 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  233 

time.  Lack  of  public  appreciation  is  the  least 
evil  that  can  befall  a  man  of  truly  great  spirit, 
—unless  indeed  it  impairs  the  usefulness  of  his 
work,  and  Edward  Everett,  who  had  sympa 
thized  so  cordially  with  Doctor  Howe's  efforts 
in  behalf  of  the  Greeks,  could  also  have  told 
him  sympathetically  that  domestic  happiness 
was  fully  as  valuable  as  public  honor.  Fortu 
nate  is  the  man  who  has  wandered  much  over 
the  earth  and  seen  great  sights,  only  the  better 
to  appreciate  the  quiet  and  repose  of  his  own 
hearth-stone !  The  storm  and  stress  period  of 
Doctor  Howe's  life  was  over,  and  henceforth  it 
was  to  be  all  blue  sky  and  smooth  sailing. 

Sumner  expressed  a  kind  of  regret  at  Doctor 
Howe's  marriage, — a  regret  for  his  own  loneli 
ness;  but  he  found  afterwards  that  instead  of 
losing  one  friend  he  had  made  another.  His 
visits  to  South  Boston  were  as  frequent  as  ever, 
and  he  often  brought  distinguished  guests  with 
him, — English,  French,  and  German.  There 
was  no  lady  in  Boston  whom  he  liked  to  con 
verse  with  so  well  as  Mrs.  Howe ;  and  if  he  met 
her  on  the  street  he  would  almost  invariably 
stop  to  speak  with  her  a  few  minutes.  He  some 
times  suffered  from  the  keen  sallies  of  her  wit, 
but  he  accepted  this  as  part  of  the  entertain 
ment,  and  once  informed  her  that  if  she  were 
president  of  the  Senate  it  would  be  much  better 
for  the  procedure  of  the  public  business. 


234  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

George  Sumner  also  came;  like  his  brother, 
a  man  much  above  the  average  in  general  abil 
ity,  and  considered  quite  equal  to  the  delivery 
of  a  Fourth  of  July  oration.  He  was  the  more 
entertaining  talker  of  the  two,  and  in  other  re 
spects  very  much  like  Tom  Appleton, — better 
known  on  the  Paris  boulevards  than  in  his  na 
tive  country.  Instead  of  being  witty  like  Apple- 
ton  he  was  brilliantly  encyclopaedic;  and  they 
both  carried  their  statements  to  the  verge  of 
credibility. 

Doctor  Howe  organized  the  blind  asylum  so 
that  it  almost  ran  itself  without  his  oversight, 
and  as  always  happens  in  such  cases  he  was 
idolized  by  those  who  were  under  his  direction. 
There  was  something  exceedingly  kind  in  his 
tone  of  voice, — a  voice  accustomed  to  command 
and  yet  much  subdued.  His  manner  towards 
children  was  particularly  charming  and  attrac 
tive.  He  exemplified  the  lines  in  Emerson's 
"Wood-notes": 

"  Grave,  chaste,  contented  though  retired, 
And  of  all  other  men  desired," 

applied  to  Doctor  Howe  more  completely  than 
to  the  person  for  whom  they  were  originally 
intended;  for  Thoreau's  bachelor  habits  and 
isolated  mode  of  life  prevented  him  from  being 
an  attractive  person  to  the  generality  of  man 
kind. 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  235 

It  was  said  of  James  GL  Elaine  that  he  left 
every  man  he  met  with  the  impression  that  he 
was  his  best  friend.  This  may  have  been  well 
intended,  but  it  has  the  effect  of  insincerity,  for 
the  thing  is  practically  impossible.  The  true 
gentleman  has  always  a  kind  manner,  but  he 
does  not  treat  the  man  whom  he  has  just  been 
introduced  to  as  a  friend;  he  waits  for  that 
until  he  shall  know  him  better.  It  is  said  of 
Americans  generally  that  they  are  generous  and 
philanthropic,  but  that  they  do  not  make  good 
friends, — that  their  idea  of  friendship  depends 
too  much  on  association  and  the  influence  of 
mutual  interests,  instead  of  the  underlying 
sense  of  spiritual  relationship.  When  they 
cease  to  have  mutual  interests  the  friendship  is 
at  an  end,  or  only  continues  to  exist  on  paper. 
Doctor  Howe  was  as  warm-hearted  as  he  was 
firm-hearted,  but  he  never  gave  his  full  confi 
dence  to  any  one  until  he  had  read  him  through 
to  the  backbone.  His  friends  were  so  fond  of 
him  that  they  would  go  any  distance  to  see  him. 
His  idea  of  friendship  seemed  to  be  like  that  of 
the  friends  in  the  sacred  band  of  Thebes,  whose 
motto  was  either  to  avenge  their  comrades  on 
the  field  of  battle  or  to  die  with  them. 

He  did  not  like  a  hypocritical  morality,  which 
he  said  too  often  resulted  in  the  hypocritical 
sort.  He  complained  of  this  in  Emerson's 
teaching,  which  he  thought  led  his  readers  to 


236  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

scrutinize  themselves  too  closely  as  well  as  to 
be  too  censorious  of  others ;  and  he  respected 
Emerson  more  for  his  manly  attitude  on  the 
Kansas  question  than  for  anything  he  wrote. 

He  always  continued  to  be  the  chevalier.  He 
was  like  Hawthorne's  gray-haired  champion, 
who  always  came  to  the  front  in  a  public  emer 
gency,  and  then  disappeared,  no  one  knew 
whither.  When  the  Bond  Street  riot  took  place 
in  1837,  there  was  Doctor  Howe  succoring  the 
oppressed;  in  1844  he  joined  the  Conscience 
Whigs  and  was  one  of  the  foremost  among 
them;  he  helped  materially  toward  the  election 
of  Sumner  in  1851,  and  for  years  afterwards 
was  a  leader  in  the  vigilance  committee  organ 
ized  to  resist  the  Fugitive  Slave  law.  He  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  George  L.  Stearns  in 
organizing  resistance  to  the  invasions  of  Kan 
sas  by  the  Missourians ;  #nd  again  in  1862  when 
Harvard  University  "made  its  last  desperate 
political  effort  in  opposition  to  Lincoln's  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation;  but  when  his  friends 
and  his  party  came  into  power  Howe  neither 
asked  nor  hinted  at  any  reward  for  his  bril 
liant  services. 

Edward  L.  Pierce,  the  biographer  of  Sum 
ner,  was  not  above  exhibiting  his  prejudices  as 
to  certain  members  of  the  Bird  Club,  both  by 
what  he  has  written  and  what  he  neglected  to 
write.  He  says  of  the  Chevalier :  '  *  Dr.  Howe, 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  237 

who  had  a  passion  for  revolutions  and  civil  dis 
turbances  of  all  kinds,  and  had  no  respect  for 
the  restrictions  of  international  law  or  comity, 
was  vexed  with  Sumner  for  not  promoting  the 
intervention  of  the  United  States  in  behalf  of 
the  insurgent  Cubans." 

This  reminds  one  of  Boswell's  treatment  of 
Doctor  Johnson's  friends.  Like  John  Adams 
and  Hampden,  Doctor  Howe  was  a  revolution 
ary  character, — and  so  were  Sumner  and  Lin 
coln, — but  he  was  a  man  in  all  matters  prudent, 
discreet  and  practical.  He  was  as  much  op 
posed  to  inflammatory  harangues  and  French 
socialistic  notions  as  he  was  to  the  hide-bound 
conservatism  against  which  he  had  battled  all 
his  life.  Like  Hampden  and  Adams  his  revo 
lutionary  strokes  were  well  timed  and  right  to 
the  point.  Experience  has  proved  them  to  be 
effective  and  salutary.  It  was  the  essential 
merit  of  Sumner  and  his  friends  that  they 
recognized  the  true  character  of  the  times  in 
which  they  lived  and  adapted  themselves  to  it. 
Thousands  of  well-educated  men  lived  through 
the  anti-slavery  and  civil  war  period  without 
being  aware  that  they  were  taking  part  in  one 
of  the  great  revolutionary  epochs  of  history. 
That  Doctor  Howe  and  Senator  Sumner  dif 
fered  in  regard  to  the  Cuban  rebellion  is  a 
matter  of  small  moment.  Howe  considered 
the  interests  of  the  Cubans;  Sumner  the  in- 


238  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

terests  of  republicanism  in  Spain  and  in  Eu 
rope  generally.  Both  were  right  from  their 
respective  standpoints. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  he  was  sixty 
years  of  age, — too  old  to  take  an  active  part  in 
it.  This  cannot  be  doubted,  however,  that  if  he 
had  been  thirty  years  younger  he  would  either 
have  won  distinction  as  a  commander  or  have 
fallen  on  the  field  of  honor.  The  best  con 
tribution  from  the  Howe  family  to  the  war 
was  Julia  Ward  Howe's  "Battle  Hymn  of 
the  Republic. "  The  war  was  a  grand  moral 
struggle,  a  conflict  of  historical  forces;  and 
neither  Lowell,  Emerson,  nor  Whittier  ex 
pressed  this  so  fully  and  with  such  depth  of 
feeling  as  Mrs.  Howe.  There  are  occasions 
when  woman  rises  superior  to  man,  and  this 
was  one  of  them.  It  was  evidently  inspired  by 
the  John  Brown  song,  that  simple  martial  mel 
ody;  but  it  rises  above  the  personal  and  tem 
poral  into  the  universal  and  eternal.  Its  meas 
ure  has  the  swing  of  the  Greek  tragic  chorus, 
extended  to  embrace  the  wider  scope  of  Chris 
tian  faith,  and  its  diction  is  of  an  equally  classic 
purity  and  vigor.  The  last  stanza  runs : 


"  In  the  beauty  of  the  lily  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 
With  a  glory  in  his  bosom  that  transfigures  you  and  me. 
As  he  died  to  make  men  holy  let  us  die  to  make  men  free ; 
As  we  go  marching  on." 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  239 

This  was  the  fine  fruit  of  Mrs.  Howe's  early 
religious  faith.  It  welled  up  in  her  nature  from 
a  deep  undercurrent,  which  few  would  have  sus 
pected  who  only  met  her  at  Sam  G.  Ward's  din 
ner  parties  and  other  fashionable  entertain 
ments.  Yet,  there  was  always  a  quiet  reserve 
in  her  laughter,  and  her  wittiest  remarks  were 
always  followed  by  a  corresponding  seriousness 
of  expression.  Although  she  studied  Spinoza, 
admired  Emerson,  and  attended  meetings  of  the 
Radical  Club  on  Chestnut  Street,  she  never  sep 
arated  herself  from  the  Church,  and  always  ex 
pressed  her  dissent  from  any  opinion  that 
seemed  to  show  a  lack  of  reverence. 

On  a  certain  occasion  when  a  member  of  the 
club  spoke  of  newspapers  as  likely  to  supersede 
the  pulpit,  Mrs.  Howe  replied  to  him:  "God 
forbid  that  should  happen.  God  forbid  we 
should  do  without  the  pulpit.  It  is  the  old  fable 
of  the  hare  and  the  tortoise.  We  need  the  hare 
for  light  running,  but  the  slow,  steady  tortoise 
wins  the  goal  at  last."  Religious  subjects,  how 
ever,  were  not  so  much  discussed  at  the  Radical 
Club  as  philosophy  and  politics, — and  in  these 
Mrs.  Howe  felt  herself  very  much  at  home. 

On  another  occasion,  when  a  member  of  the 
club  said  that  he  was  prepared,  like  Emerson,  to 
accept  the  universe,  Mrs.  Howe  interposed  with 
the  remark  that  it  was  Margaret  Fuller  who  ac 
cepted  the  universe;  she  "was  not  aware  that 


240  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  universe  had  been  offered  to  Emerson." 
She  said  this  because  Margaret  Fuller  was  a 
woman. 

Once,  when  writing  for  the  newspapers  was 
under  discussion,  Mrs.  Howe  remarked  that  in 
that  kind  of  composition  one  felt  prescribed  like 
St.  Simeon  Stylites  by  the  limitations  of  the 
column. 

One  of  the  best  of  her  witty  poems  describes 
Boston  on  a  rainy  day,  and  is  called  "Ex- 
pluvior,"  an  innocent  parody  on  Longfellow's 
61  Excelsior, "  which,  by  the  way,  ought  to  have 
been  called  Excelsius. 

"  The  butcher  came  a  walking  flood, 
Drenching  the  kitchen  where  he  stood. 
'  Deucalion,  is  your  name  ¥  I  pray. 
1  Moses/  he  choked  and  slid  away. 

Expluvior" 

is  one  of  the  most  characteristic  verses ;  but  in 
the  last  stanza  she  wishes  to  construct  a  dam  at 
the  foot  of  Beacon  Hill  and  cause  a  flood  that 
would  sweep  the  rebel  sympathizers  out  of 
Boston. 

The  office  of  the  Blind  Asylum  was  formerly 
near  the  middle  of  Bromfield  Street  on  the 
southern  side.  This  is  now  historic  ground. 
Between  1850  and  1870  some  of  the  most  im 
portant  national  councils  were  held  there  in  Dr. 
Howe 's  private  office.  It  was  the  first  place  that 


CHEVALIER   HOWE  241 

Sumner  went  to  in  the  morning  and  the  last 
place  that  Governor  Andrew  stopped  before  re 
turning  to  his  home  at  night.  There  Dr.  Howe 
and  George  L.  Stearns  consulted  with  John 
Brown  concerning  measures  for  the  defence  of 
Kansas;  and  there  Howe,  Stearns,  and  Bird 
concerted  plans  for  the  election  of  Andrew  in 
1860,  and  for  the  re-election  of  Sumner  in  1862. 
It  was  a  quiet,  retired  spot  in  the  midst  of  a 
bustling  city,  where  a  celebrated  man  could  go 
without  attracting  public  attention. 

Chevalier  Howe   outlived  Sumner  just  one 
year,  and  Wilson  followed  him  not  long  after. 


16 


THE  WAR  GOVERNOR. 

Sebago  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the 
New  England  lakes,  and  has  been  celebrated  in 
Longfellow's  verse  for  its  curiously  winding 
river  between  the  upper  and  the  lower  portion, 
as  well  as  for  the  Indian  traditions  connected 
with  it.  John  A.  Andrew's  grandfather,  like 
Hawthorne's  father,  lived  in  Salem  and  both 
families  emigrated  to  Sebago,  the  former  locat 
ing  himself  in  the  small  town  of  Windham.  At 
the  time  when  Hawthorne  was  sailing  his  little 
boat  on  the  lake,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  John 
Andrew  was  in  his  nurse's  arms, — born  May 
31,  1818.  Like  Hawthorne  and  Longfellow  he 
went  to  Bowdoin.  College,  but  did  not  distin 
guish  himself  there  as  a  scholar, — had  no  hon 
ors  at  commencement.  We  are  still  in  ignor 
ance  concerning  his  college  life,  what  his 
interests  were,  and  how  he  spent  his  time ;  but 
Andrew  never  cared  much  for  anything  which 
had  not  an  immediate  and  practical  value. 
Greek  and  Latin,  merely  for  their  own  sake 
as  ancient  languages,  did  not  appeal  to  him; 
nor  did  the  desiccated  history  and  cramping 
philosophy  of  those  days  attract  him  more 
strongly.  Yet  he  ultimately  developed  one  of 
the  finest  of  American  intellects. 

242 


JOHN  A.  ANDREW 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  243 

He  was  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  at  the  age 
of  twenty-two.  He  had  already  formed  decided 
opinions  on  the  slavery  question.  The  practi 
tioner  with  whom  he  studied  was  precisely  the 
opposite  of  Andrew, — a  brilliant  scholar,  but 
formal  and  unsympathetic.  Although  a  young 
man  of  fine  promise  he  was  soon  excelled  by  his 
less  learned  but  more  energetic  pupil.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-six  we  find  Andrew  presiding  at 
a  convention  of  Free-soilers,  the  same  which 
nominated  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe  for  Congress.  Why 
he  did  not  appear  in  politics  between  1844  and 
1859  is  something  of  a  mystery,  which  may  be 
explained  either  by  his  devotion  to  his  profes 
sion  or  his  unwillingness  to  make  politics  a  pro 
fession.  He  was  in  constant  communication 
with  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Frank  W.  Bird, 
and  other  leading  independents,  and  played  a 
part  in  the  election  of  Sumner  as  well  as  at  vari 
ous  nominating  conventions ;  but  he  apparently 
neither  sought  office  nor  was  sought  for  it.  It 
may  have  been  a  modest  conscientiousness  of 
his  own  value,  which  prevented  the  acceptance 
of  public  honors  until  he  was  prepared  to  claim 
the  best ;  but  the  fact  is  difficult  to  account  for 
on  any  supposition. 

Neither  was  his  success  at  the  bar  remarkable. 
He  never  earned  a  large  income,  and  died  com 
paratively  poor.  There  were  few  who  cared  to 
meet  him  in  debate,  yet  his  legal  scholarship 


244  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

was  not  exceptional,  and  his  political  opinions 
rnay  have  proved  an  impediment  to  him  in  a 
city  which  was  still  devoted  to  Webster  and 
Winthrop.  Moreover,  his  kindness  of  heart 
prompted  him  to  undertake  a  large  number  of 
cases  for  which  he  received  little  or  no  remuner 
ation.  As  late  as  1856  he  was  known  as  the 
poor  man's  lawyer  rather  than  as  a  distin 
guished  pleader.  One  cannot  help  reflecting 
what  might  have  been  John  A.  Andrew's  for 
tune  if  he  had  been  born  in  Ohio  or  Illinois.  In 
the  latter  State  he  would  have  proved  a  most 
important  political  factor;  for  he  was  fully  as 
able  a  speaker  as  Douglas,  and  he  combined 
with  this  a  large  proportion  of  those  estimable 
qualities  which  we  all  admire  in  Abraham  Lin 
coln.  He  had  not  the  wit  of  Lincoln,  nor  his 
immense  fund  of  anecdote,  which  helped  so 
much  to  make  him  popular,  but  the  cordial  man 
ners  and  manly  frankness  of  Andrew  were  very 
captivating.  He  would  have  told  Douglas  to  his 
face  that  he  was  a  demagogue,  as  Mirabeau  did 
to  Eobespierre,  and  would  have  carried  the  au 
dience  with  him.  It  certainly  seems  as  if  he 
would  have  risen  to  distinction  there  more  rap 
idly  than  in  old-fashioned,  conventional  Boston. 
Governor  Andrew  was  an  inch  shorter  than 
the  average  height  of  man,  and  much  resem 
bled  Professor  Child  in  personal  appearance. 
He  was  a  larger  man  than  Professor  Child,  and 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  245 

his  hair  was  darker,  but  he  had  the  same  round, 
good-humored  face,  with  keen  penetrating  eyes 
beneath  a  brow  as  finely  sculptured  as  that  of  a 
Greek  statue,  and  closely  curling  hair  above  it. 
He  was  broad-shouldered,  remarkably  so,  and 
had  a  strong  figure  but  not  a  strong  constitu 
tion.  His  hands  were  soft  and  as  white  as 
a  woman 's ;  and  though  his  step  was  quick  and 
elastic  he  disliked  to  walk  long  distances,  and 
was  averse  to  physical  exercise  generally. 

He  also  resembled  Professor  Child  in  charac 
ter, — frank  without  bluntness ;  sincere  both 
formally  and  intellectually, — full  to  the  brim  of 
moral  courage.  He  was  not  only  kind-hearted, 
but  very  tender-hearted,  so  that  his  lips  would 
quiver  on  occasions  and  his  eyes  fill  with  tears, 
—what  doctors  improperly  call  a  lachrymose 
nature ;  but  in  regard  to  a  question  of  principle 
or  public  necessity  he  was  as  firm  as  Plymouth 
Eock.  Neither  did  he  deceive  himself,  as  kindly 
persons  are  too  apt  to  do,  in  regard  to  the  true 
conditions  of  the  case  in  hand.  He  would  in 
terrogate  an  applicant  for  assistance  in  as 
judicious  a  manner  as  he  would  a  witness  in  a 
court  room.  He  never  degenerated  into  the  pro 
fessed  philanthropist,  who  makes  a  disagree 
able  and  pernicious  habit  of  one  of  the  noblest 
attributes  of  man.  "A  mechanical  virtue,"  he 
would  say,  "  is  no  virtue  at  all. ' ' 

The  impressions  of  youth  are  much  stronger 


246  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

and  more  enduring  than  those  of  middle  life, 
and  I  still  remember  Andrew  as  he  appeared 
presiding  at  the  meeting  for  the  benefit  of 
John  Brown's  wife  and  daughters  in  November, 
1859.  This  was  his  first  notable  appearance 
before  the  public,  and  nothing  could  have  been 
more  daring  or  more  likely  to  make  him  unpop 
ular;  and  yet  within  twelve  months  he  was 
elected  Governor.  His  attitude  and  his  whole 
appearance  was  resolute  and  intrepid.  He  had 
set  his  foot  down,  and  no  power  on  earth  could 
induce  him  to  withdraw  it.  A  clergyman  who 
had  been  invited  to  speak  at  the  meeting  had  at 
first  accepted,  but  being  informed  by  some  of 
his  parishioners  that  the  thing  would  not  do, 
declined  with  the  excuse  that  he  had  supposed 
there  would  be  two  sides  to  the  question.  ' i  As 
if,"  said  Andrew,  " there  could  be  two  sides  to 
the  question  whether  John  Brown's  wife  and 
daughters  should  be  permitted  to  starve." 
Thomas  Eussell,  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court, 
sat  close  under  the  platform,  clapping  his 
hands  like  pistol  shots. 

John  A.  Andrew's  testimony  before  the  Har 
per's  Ferry  investigating  committee  has  a  his 
torical  value  which  Hay  and  Nicolay,  Wilson, 
and  Von  Hoist  would  have  done  well  to  have 
taken  into  consideration ;  but  the  definitive  his 
tory  of  the  war  period  is  yet  to  be  written. 
There  was  no  reason  why  Andrew  should  have 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  247 

been  summoned.  He  had  never  met  John 
Brown  but  once — at  a  lady's  house  in  Boston— 
and  had  given  him  twenty-five  dollars  without 
knowing  what  was  to  be  done  with  it.  Jefferson 
Davis  and  the  other  Southern  members  of  the 
committee  evidently  sent  for  him  to  make  capi 
tal  against  the  Republican  party,  but  the  result 
was  different  from  what  they  anticipated. 
Andrew  told  them  squarely  that  the  Harper's 
Ferry  invasion  was  the  inevitable  consequence 
of  their  attempt  to  force  slavery  on  Kansas 
against  the  will  of  its  inhabitants,  and  that  the 
Pottawatomie  massacre,  whether  John  Brown 
was  connected  with  it  or  not,  was  not  so  bad  in 
its  moral  effect  as  the  assault  on  Sumner.  It 
was  what  they  might  expect  from  attempting 
to  tyrannize  over  frontier  farmers.  It  is  not 
to  be  supposed  that  such  men  will  be  governed 
by  the  nice  sense  of  justice  of  an  eastern  law 
court. 

His  testimony  in  regard  to  the  personal  mag 
netism  of  John  Brown  is  of  great  value ;  but  he 
also  admitted  that  there  was  something  about 
the  old  man  which  he  could  not  quite  under 
stand, — a  mental  peculiarity  which  may  have 
resulted  from  his  hard,  barren  life,  or  the  fixed 
ness  of  his  purpose. 

Andrew  had  already  been  elected  to  the  Leg 
islature,  and  had  taken  his  seat  there  in  Janu 
ary,  1860.  Almost  in  an  instant  he  became  the 


248  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

leader  of  his  party  in  the  House.  Always  ready 
to  seize  the  right  moment,  he  united  the  two 
essential  qualities  of  a  debater,  a  good  set 
speech  and  a  pertinent  reply.  Perfectly  fear 
less  and  independent,  he  was  exactly  the  man  to 
guide  his  party  through  a  critical  period.  There 
were  few  in  the  house  who  cared  to  interfere 
with  him. 

Andrew  was  chairman  of  the  Massachusetts 
delegation  at  the  Chicago  Convention  in  May, 
and  although  he  voted  for  Seward  he  was  di 
rectly  instrumental  in  the  nomination  of  Lin 
coln.  It  is  said  to  have  been  at  his  suggestion 
that  the  Massachusetts  delegation  called  to 
gether  the  delegations  of  those  States  that  de 
feated  Fremont  in  1856,  and  inquired  of  them 
which  of  the  candidates  would  be  most  certain 
to  carry  their  constituencies;  and  with  one 
accord  they  all  answered  Lincoln.  Thus  Lin 
coln's  nomination  was  practically  assured  be 
fore  the  voting  began. 

It  has  been  repeatedly  asserted  that  the  nom 
ination  of  Andrew  for  Governor  was  the  result 
of  a  general  popular  movement;  but  this  was 
simply  impossible.  He  was  chiefly  known  to  the 
voters  of  the  State  at  that  time  as  the  presiding 
officer  of  a  John  Brown  meeting,  and  that  was 
quite  as  likely  to  retard  as  to  advance  his  in 
terests.  He  had,  however,  become  a  popular 
leader  in  the  Legislature,  and  the  fact  that  Gov- 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  249 

ernor  Banks  was  opposed  to  him  and  cast  his 
influence  in  favor  of  a  Pittsfield  candidate,  left 
a  sort  of  political  vacuum  in  the  more  populous 
portion  of  the  State,  which  Frank  W.  Bird  and 
Henry  L.  Pierce  took  advantage  of  to  bring  his 
name  forward.  Sumner  and  Wilson  threw  their 
weight  into  the  scales,  and  Andrew  was  easily 
nominated ;  but  he  owed  this  to  Frank  W.  Bird 
more  than  to  any  other  supporter. 

In  the  New  York  Herald  of  December  20, 
1860,  there  was  the  following  item :  ' '  Governor- 
elect  Andrew,  of  Massachusetts,  and  George  L. 
Stearns  have  gone  to  Washington  together,  and 
it  is  said  that  the  object  of  their  visit  is  to 
brace  up  weak-kneed  Republicans/'  This  was 
one  object  of  their  journey,  but  they  also  went 
to  survey  the  ground  and  see  what  was  the 
true  state  of  affairs  at  the  Capital.  Stearns 
wrote  from  Washington  to  the  Bird  Club: 
"The  watchword  here  is  'Keep  quiet/  a 
sentence  full  of  significance  for  the  interpreta 
tion  of  the  policy  pursued  by  the  Eepublican 
leaders  that  winter.  Andrew  returned  with  the 
conviction  that  war  was  imminent  and  could  not 
be  prevented.  His  celebrated  order  in  regard 
to  the  equipment  of  the  State  militia  followed 
immediately,  and  after  the  bombardment  of 
Fort  Sumter  this  was  looked  upon  as  a  true 
prophecy.  He  foresaw  the  difficulty  at  Balti 
more,  and  had  already  chartered  steamships  to 


250  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

convey  regiments  to  Washington,  in  case  there 
should  be  a  general  uprising  in  Maryland. 

Both  Sumner  and  Wilson  opposed  the  ap 
pointment  of  General  Butler  to  the  command 
of  the  Massachusetts  Volunteers,  and  preferred 
Caleb  Gushing,  who  afterwards  proved  to  be  a 
more  satisfactory  member  of  the  Republican 
party  than  Butler;  but,  on  the  whole,  Andrew 
would  seem  to  have  acted  judiciously.  They 
were  both  bold,  ingenious  and  quick-witted  men, 
but  it  is  doubtful  if  Gushing  possessed  the  dash 
and  intrepidity  which  Butler  showed  in  dealing 
with  the  situation  at  Baltimore.  That  portion 
of  his  military  career  was  certainly  a  good  suc 
cess,  and  how  far  he  should  be  held  responsible 
for  the  corrupt  proceedings  of  his  brother  at 
New  Orleans  I  do  not  undertake  to  decide. 

It  is  likely  that  Governor  Andrew  regretted 
his  choice  three  weeks  later,  when  General  But 
ler  offered  his  services  to  the  Governor  of 
Maryland  to  suppress  a  slave  insurrection 
which  never  took  place,  and  of  which  there  was 
no  danger  then  or  afterwards.  A  sharp  corre 
spondence  followed  between  the  Governor  and 
the  General,  in  which  the  latter  nearly  reached 
the  point  of  insubordination.  For  excellent  rea 
sons  this  was  not  made  public  at  the  time,  and 
is  little  known  at  the  present  day ;  but  General 
Butler  owed  his  prominence  in  the  war  wholly 
to  Governor  Andrew's  appointment. 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  251 

Another  little-known  incident  was  Andrew's 
action  in  regard  to  the  meeting  in  memory  of 
John  Brown,  which  was  held  on  December  2, 
1861,  by  "Wendell  Phillips,  F.  B.  Sanborn  and 
others,  who  were  mobbed  exactly  as  Garrison 
was  mobbed  thirty  years  earlier.  The  Mayor 
would  do  nothing  to  protect  them,  and  when 
Wendell  Phillips  went  to  seek  assistance  from 
Andrew  the  latter  declined  to  interfere.  It 
would  be  a  serious  matter  to  interfere  with  the 
Mayor,  and  he  did  not  feel  that  the  occasion 
demanded  it.  Moreover  he  considered  the  cele 
bration  at  that  time  to  be  prejudicial  to  the 
harmony  of  the  Union  cause.  Phillips  was 
already  very  much  irritated  and  left  the  Gov 
ernor's  office  in  no  friendly  mood.  Andrew 
might  have  said  to  him:  'You  have  been 
mobbed;  what  more  do  you  want?  There  is 
no  more  desirable  honor  than  to  be  mobbed  in 
a  good  cause." 

Governor  Andrew's  appointments  continued 
to  be  so  favorable  to  the  Democrats  that  Martin 
F.  Conway,  the  member  of  Congress  from  Kan 
sas,  said :  "The  Governor  has  come  into  power 
with  the  help  of  his  friends,  and  he  intends  to 
retain  it  by  conciliating  his  opponents. ' '  It  cer 
tainly  looked  like  this;  but  no  one  who  knew 
Andrew  intimately  would  believe  that  he  acted 
from  interested  motives.  Moreover  it  was 
wholly  unnecessary  to  conciliate  them.  It  is 


252  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

customary  in  Massachusetts  to  give  the  Gov 
ernor  three  annual  terms,  and  no  more;  but 
Andrew  was  re-elected  four  times,  and  it  seemed 
as  if  he  might  have  had  as  many  terms  as 
Caius  Marius  had  consulships  if  he  had  only 
desired  it. 

His  object  evidently  was  to  unite  all  classes 
and  parties  in  a  vigorous  support  of  the  Union 
cause,  and  he  could  only  do  this  by  taking  a 
number  of  colonels  and  other  commissioned  offi 
cers  from  the  Democratic  ranks.  For  company 
officers  there  was  no  better  recommendation  to 
him  than  for  a  young  man  to  be  suspended,  or 
expelled,  from  Harvard  University.  "  Those 
turbulent  fellows, ' '  he  said,  * '  always  make  good 
fighters,  and, ' '  he  added  in  a  more  serious  tone, 
* t  some  of  them  will  not  be  greatly  missed  if  they 
do  not  return. ' '  The  young  aristocrat  who  was 
expelled  for  threatening  to  tweak  his  profes 
sor  's  nose  obtained  a  commission  at  once. 

Another  case  of  this  sort  was  so  pathetic  that 
it  deserves  to  be  commemorated.  Sumner  Paine 
(named  after  Charles  Sumner),  the  finest 
scholar  in  his  class  at  Harvard,  was  suspended 
in  June,  1863,  for  some  trifling  folly  and  went 
directly  to  the  Governor  for  a  commission  as 
Lieutenant.  Having  an  idea  that  the  colored 
regiments  were  a  particular  hobby  with  the 
Governor,  he  asked  for  a  place  in  one  of  them; 
but  Andrew  replied  that  the  list  was  full;  he 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  253 

could,  however,  give  him  a  Lieutenancy  in  the 
Twentieth  Massachusetts,  which  was  then  in 
pursuit  of  General  Lee.  Sumner  Paine  ac 
cepted  this,  and  ten  days  later  he  was  shot  dead 
on  the  field  of  Gettysburg.  Governor  Andrew 
felt  very  badly;  for  Paine  was  not  only  a  fine 
scholar  but  very  handsome,  and,  what  is  rare 
among  hard  students,  full  of  energy  and  good 
spirits. 

Governor  Andrew  tried  a  number  of  conclu 
sions,  as  Shakespeare  would  call  them,  with  the 
National  Government  during  the  war,  but  the 
most  serious  difficulty  of  this  kind  resulted  from 
Secretary  Stanton's  arbitrary  reduction  of  the 
pay  of  colored  soldiers  from  thirteen  to  eight 
dollars  a  month.  This,  of  course,  was  a  breach 
of  contract,  and  Governor  Andrew  felt  a  per 
sonal  responsibility  in  regard  to  it,  so  far  as  the 
Massachusetts  regiments  were  concerned. 

He  first  protested  against  it  to  the  Secretary 
of  War ;  but,  strange  to  say,  Stanton  obtained 
a  legal  opinion  in  justification  of  his  order  from 
William  Whiting,  the  solicitor  of  the  War  De 
partment.  Governor  Andrew  then  appealed  to 
President  Lincoln,  who  referred  the  case  to  At 
torney-General  Bates,  and  Bates,  after  examin 
ing  the  question,  reported  adversely  to  Solicitor 
Whiting  and  notified  President  Lincoln  that  the 
Government  would  be  liable  to  an  action  for 
damages.  The  President  accordingly  referred 


254  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

this  report  to  Stanton,  who  paid  no  attention 
whatever  to  it. 

Meanwhile  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  had 
passed  an  act  to  make  good  the  deficiency  of 
five  dollars  a  month  to  the  Massachusetts  col 
ored  regiments,  but  the  private  soldiers,  with  a 
magnanimity  that  should  never  be  forgotten, 
refused  to  accept  from  the  State  what  they  con 
sidered  due  them  from  the  National  Govern 
ment.  At  last  Governor  Andrew  applied  to 
Congress  for  redress,  declaring  that  if  he  did 
not  live  to  see  justice  done  to  his  soldiers  in  this 
world  he  would  carry  his  appeal  "before  the 
Tribunal  of  Infinite  Justice. " 

Thaddeus  Stevens  introduced  a  bill  for  the 
purpose  June  4, 1864,  and  after  waiting  a  whole 
year  the  colored  soldiers  received  their  dues. 
Andrew  declared  in  his  message  to  Congress 
that  this  affair  was  a  disgrace  to  the  National 
Government ;  and  I  fear  we  shall  have  to  agree 
with  him.* 

Sixty  years  ago  Macaulay  noticed  the  injuri 
ous  effects  on  oratory  of  newspaper  publication. 
Parliamentary  speeches  were  written  to  be  read 
rather  than  to  be  listened  to.  It  was  a  pecu 
liarity  of  Andrew,  however,  that  he  wrote  his 


*  At  this  time  there  were  not  less  than  five  thousand  offi 
cers  drawing  pay  in  the  Union  armies  above  the  requisite 
proportion  of  one  officer  to  twenty-two  privates. 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  255 

letters  and  even  his  messages  to  the  Legislature 
as  if  he  were  making  a  speech.  In  conversation 
he  was  plain,  sensible  and  kindly. 

He  made  no  pretensions  to  oratory  in  his 
public  addresses,  but  his  delivery  was  easy, 
clear,  and  emphatic.  At  times  he  spoke  rather 
rapidly,  but  not  so  much  so  as  to  create  a  con 
fused  impression.  I  never  knew  him  to  make 
an  argumentum  ad  hominem,  nor  to  indulge  in 
those  rhetorical  tricks  which  even  Webster  and 
Everett  were  not  wholly  free  from.  He  con 
vinced  his  hearers  as  much  by  the  fairness  of 
his  manner  as  by  anything  that  he  said. 

The  finest  passage  in  his  speeches,  as  we  read 
them  now,  is  his  tribute  to  Lincoln's  character 
in  his  address  to  the  Legislature,  following 
upon  Lincoln's  assassination.  After  describing 
him  as  the  man  who  had  added  "martyrdom 
itself  to  his  other  and  scarcely  less  emphatic 
claims  to  human  veneration,  gratitude  and 
love, ' '  he  continued  thus  :  "I  desire  on  this 
grave  occasion  to  record  my  sincere  testimony 
to  the  unaffected  simplicity  of  his  manly  pur 
pose,  to  the  constancy  with  which  he  devoted 
himself  to  his  duty,  to  the  grand  fidelity  with 
which  he  subordinated  himself  to  his  country, 
to  the  clearness,  robustness,  and  sagacity  of  his 
understanding,  to  his  sincere  love  of  truth,  his 
undeviating  progress  in  its  faithful  pursuit, 
and  to  the  confidence  which  he  could  not  fail  to 


256  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

inspire  in  the  singular  integrity  of  his  virtues 
and  the  conspicuously  judicial  quality  of  his 
intellect." 

Could  any  closer  and  more  comprehensive  de 
scription  be  given  of  Andrew's  own  character; 
and  is  there  another  statement  so  appreciative 
in  the  various  biographies  of  Lincoln! 

The  instances  of  his  kindness  and  helpfulness 
were  multitudinous,  but  have  now  mostly  lapsed 
into  oblivion.  During  his  five  years  in  office  it 
seemed  as  if  every  distressed  man,  woman,  and 
child  came  to  the  Governor  for  assistance. 
William  G.  Russell,  who  declined  the  position  of 
Chief  Justice,  once  said  of  him:  "There  was 
no  better  recommendation  to  Andrew's  favor 
than  for  a  man  to  have  been  in  the  State's 
prison,  if  it  could  only  be  shown  that  he  had 
been  there  longer  than  he  deserved. ' ' 

Andrew  considered  the  saving  of  a  human 
soul  more  important  than  rescuing  a  human 
life.  That  he  was  often  foiled,  deceived,  and 
disappointed  in  these  reformatory  attempts  is 
perfectly  true;  but  was  it  not  better  so  than 
never  to  have  made  them?  For  a  long  time  he 
had  charge  of  an  intemperate  nephew,  who  even 
sold  his  overcoat  to  purchase  drink;  but  the 
Governor  never  deserted  the  fellow  and  cared 
for  him  as  well  as  he  could. 

This  is  the  more  significant  on  account  of 
Andrew's  strong  argument  against  prohibitory 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  257 

legislation,  which  was  the  last  important  act  of 
his  life. 

In  February,  1864,  there  was  a  military  ball 
at  Concord  for  the  benefit  of  the  Thirty-second 
Massachusetts  Eegiment.  Governor  Andrew 
was  present,  and  seeing  the  son  of  an  old  friend 
sitting  in  a  corner  and  looking  much  neglected 
while  his  brother  was  dancing  and  having  a  fine 
time,  the  Governor  went  to  him,  took  him  by 
the  arm  and  marched  several  times  around  the 
hall  with  him.  He  then  went  to  Mrs.  Haw 
thorne,  inquired  what  her  husband  was  writing, 
and  explained  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  to  her, 
drawing  a  diagram  of  it  on  a  letter  which  he 
took  from  his  coat  pocket.  Years  afterwards 
Mrs.  Hawthorne  spoke  of  this  as  one  of  the 
pleasantest  interviews  of  her  life. 

He  would  come  in  late  to  dinner  at  the  Bird 
Club,  looking  so  full  of  force  that  he  seemed  as 
much  like  a  steam-engine  as  a  man.  They  usu 
ally  applauded  him,  but  he  paid  no  attention 
to  it.  "Waiter,  bring  me  some  minced  fish  with 
carrots  and  beets, ' '  he  would  say.  His  fish-din 
ner  became  proverbial,  but  he  complained  that 
they  could  not  serve  it  at  fine  hotels  in  the  way 
our  grandmothers  made  it.  He  said  it  did  not 
taste  the  same. 

His  private  secretary  states  that  Governor 
Andrew's  favorite  sans  souci  was  to  take  a 
drive  into  the  country  with  some  friend,  and 

17 


258  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

after  he  had  passed  the  thickly  settled  suburbs 
to  talk,  laugh  and  jest  as  young  men  do  on  a 
yachting  excursion, — but  his  talk  was  always  re 
fined.  There  was  no  recreation  that  Professor 
Francis  J.  Child  liked  better  than  this. 

Andrew's  valedictory  address  on  January  5, 
1865,  which  was  chiefly  concerned  with  the  re 
construction  of  the  Southern  States,  was  little 
understood  at  the  time  even  by  his  friends ;  and 
in  truth  he  did  not  make  out  his  scheme  as 
clearly  as  he  might  have  done.  He  considered 
negro  suffrage  the  first  essential  of  reconstruc 
tion,  but  he  did  not  believe  in  enfranchising  the 
colored  people  and  disfranchising  the  whites. 
He  foresaw  that  this  could  only  end  in  disaster ; 
and  he  advised  that  the  rebellious  States  should 
remain  under  military  government  until  the 
white  people  of  the  South  should  rescind  their 
acts  of  secession  and  adopt  negro  suffrage  of 
their  own  accord.  There  would  have  been  cer 
tain  advantages  in  this  over  the  plan  that  was 
afterwards  adopted — that  is,  Sumner's  plan- 
but  it  included  the  danger  that  the  Southern 
States  might  have  adopted  universal  suffrage 
and  negro  citizenship  for  the  sake  of  Congres 
sional  representation,  and  afterwards  have  con 
verted  it  into  a  dead  letter,  as  it  is  at  present. 
Andrew  considered  Lincoln's  attempts  at  re 
construction  as  premature,  and  therefore 
injudicious. 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  259 

For  nearly  twenty -five  years  John  A.  Andrew 
was  a  parishoner  of  Rev.  James  Freeman 
Clarke,  who  preached  in  Indiana  Place  Chapel. 
In  1848  Eev.  Mr.  Clarke  desired  to  exchange 
with  Theodore  Parker,  but  older  members  of 
his  parish  strenuously  opposed  it.  Andrew, 
then  only  twenty-seven  years  old,  came  forward 
in  support  of  his  pastor,  and  argued  the  case 
vigorously,  not  because  he  agreed  with  Parker's 
theological  opinions,  but  because  he  considered 
the  opposition  illiberal.  After  this  both  Andrew 
and  Clarke  would  seem  to  have  become  grad 
ually  more  conservative,  for  when  the  latter 
delivered  a  sermon  or  lecture  in  1866  in  oppo 
sition  to  Emerson's  philosophy,  the  ex-Gov 
ernor  printed  a  public  letter  requesting  him  to 
repeat  it.  It  is  easy  to  trace  the  influence  of 
James  Freeman  Clarke  in  Governor  Andrew's 
religious  opinions  and  Andrew's  influence  on 
Rev.  Mr.  Clarke's  politics.  Each  was  a  firm 
believer  in  the  other. 

The  movement  to  supersede  Sunnier  with 
Andrew  as  United  States  Senator,  in  1869,  orig 
inated  in  what  is  called  the  Back  Bay  district. 
It  was  not  because  they  loved  Andrew  there, 
but  because  they  hated  Sumner,  who  repre 
sented  to  their  minds  the  loss  of  political  power 
which  they  had  enjoyed  from  the  foundation  of 
the  Republic  until  his  election  in  1850,  and  have 
never  recovered  it  since.  Andrew's  political 


260  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

record  and  his  democratic  manners  could  hardly 
have  been  to  their  liking. 

The  Boston  aristocracy  counted  for  success 
on  the  support  of  the  Grand  Army  veterans,  who 
were  full  of  enthusiasm  for  Andrew;  but  it  is 
not  probable  that  the  ex-Governor  would  have 
been  willing  to  lead  a  movement  which  his  best 
friends  disapproved  of,  and  which  originated 
with  the  same  class  of  men  who  tried  so  hard  to 
defeat  him  in  1862.  Moreover,  they  would  have 
found  a  very  sturdy  opponent  in  Senator  Wil 
son.  It  was  Wilson  who  had  made  Sumner  a 
Senator,  and  for  fifteen  years  they  had  fought 
side  by  side  without  the  shadow  of  a  misunder 
standing  between  them.  Under  such  conditions 
men  cannot  help  feeling  a  strong  affection  for 
one  another.  Besides  this,  Wilson  would  have 
been  influenced  by  interested  motives.  Sumner 
cared  nothing  for  the  minor  Government  offices 
—the  classified  service — except  so  far  as  to  as 
sist  occasionally  some  unfortunate  person  who 
had  been  crowded  out  of  the  regular  lines ;  and 
this  afforded  Wilson  a  fine  opportunity  of  ex 
tending  his  influence.  If  Andrew  were  chosen 
Senator  in  the  way  that  was  anticipated  Wilson 
knew  well  enough  that  this  patronage  would 
have  to  be  divided  between  them. 

Andrew  could  not  have  replaced  Sumner  in 
the  Senate.  He  lacked  the  physical  strength  as 
well  as  the  experience,  and  that  extensive  range 


THE    WAR    GOVERNOR  261 

of  legal  and  historical  knowledge  which  so  often 
disconcerted  Simmer's  opponents.  He  had  a 
genius  for  the  executive,  and  the  right  position 
for  him  would  have  been  in  President  Grant's 
cabinet.  That  he  would  have  been  offered  such 
a  place  can  hardly  be  doubted. 

But  Governor  Andrew's  span  of  life  was  over. 
He  might  have  lived  longer  if  he  had  taken  more 
physical  exercise;  but  the  great  Civil  War 
proved  more  fatal  to  the  statesmen  who  were 
engaged  in  it  than  to  the  generals  in  the  field. 
None  of  the  great  leaders  of  the  Eepublican 
party  lasted  very  long  after  this. 

Andrew's  friends  always  felt  that  the  man 
was  greater  than  his  position,  and  that  he  really 
missed  the  opportunity  to  develop  his  ability 
to  its  full  extent.  His  position  was  not  so  diffi 
cult  as  that  of  Governor  Morgan,  of  New  York, 
or  Governor  Morton,  of  Indiana ;  for  he  was 
supported  by  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
patriotic  of  the  States.  It  was  his  clear  insight 
into  the  political  problems  of  his  time  and  the 
fearlessness  with  which  he  attacked  them  that 
gave  him  such  influence  among  his  contem 
poraries,  and  made  him  felt  as  a  moral  force  to 
the  utmost  limits  of  the  Union.  No  public  man 
has  ever  left  a  more  stainless  reputation,  and 
we  only  regret  that  he  was  not  as  considerate 
of  himself  as  he  was  of  others. 


THE  COLOEED  EEGIMENTS. 

THE  first  colored  regiment  in  the  Civil  War 
was  organized  by  General  Hunter  at  Beaufort, 
S.  C.,  in  May,  1862,  without  permission  from 
the  Government;  and  some  said,  perhaps  un 
justly,  that  he  was  removed  from  his  command 
on  that  account.  It  was  reorganized  by  General 
Saxton  the  following  August,  and  accepted  by 
the  Secretary  of  War  a  short  time  afterwards. 
Eev.  T.  W.  Higginson,  who  had  led  the  attack  on 
Boston  Court  House  in  the  attempt  to  rescue 
Anthony  Burns,  was  commissioned  as  its 
Colonel. 

In  August  also  George  L.  Stearns,  being 
aware  that  Senator  Sumner  was  preparing  a 
speech  to  be  delivered  at  the  Eepublican  State 
convention,  went  to  his  house  on  Hancock 
Street  and  urged  that  he  should  advocate  in  it 
the  general  enlistment  of  colored  troops;  but 
Sumner  said  decisively,  "No,  I  do  not  consider 
it  advisable  to  agitate  that  question  until  the 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation  has  become  a 
fact.  Then  we  will  take  another  step  in  ad 
vance.  ' '  At  a  town  meeting  held  in  Medf ord,  in 
December,  Mr.  Stearns  made  a  speech  on  the 
same  subject,  and  was  hissed  for  his  pains  by 
the  same  men  who  were  afterwards  saved  from 

262 


MAJOR   GEORGE  L.  STEARNS 


THE    COLORED    REGIMENTS  263 

the  conscription  of  1863  by  the  negroes  whom 
he  recruited. 

Lewis  Hayden,  the  colored  janitor  of  the 
State  House,  always  claimed  the  credit  of  hav 
ing  suggested  to  Governor  Andrew  to  organize 
a  colored  regiment  of  Massachusetts  Volun 
teers.  William  S.  Robinson,  who  was  then 
Clerk  of  the  State  Senate,  supported  Hayden 
in  this ;  but  he  also  remarked  that  Representa 
tive  Durfee,  of  New  Bedford,  proposed  a  bill 
in  May,  1861,  for  the  organization  of  a  colored 
regiment,  and  that  it  was  only  defeated  by  six 
votes. 

As  soon  as  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipa 
tion  had  been  issued  the  Governor  went  to 
Washington  for  a  personal  interview  with  the 
Secretary  of  War,  and  returned  with  the  de 
sired  permission.  Mr.  Stearns  went  with  him 
and  obtained  a  commission  for  James  Mont 
gomery,  who  had  defended  the  Kansas  border 
during  Buchanan's  administration,  to  be 
Colonel  of  another  colored  regiment  in  South 
Carolina.  Colonel  Montgomery  arrived  at 
Beaufort  about  the  first  of  February. 

Governor  Andrew  formed  the  skeleton  of  a 
regiment  with  Robert  G.  Shaw  as  Colonel,  but 
was  able  to  obtain  few  recruits.  There  were 
plenty  of  sturdy  negroes  about  Boston,  but  they 
were  earning  higher  wages  than  ever  before, 
and  were  equally  afraid  of  what  might  happen 


264  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

to  them  if  they  were  captured  by  the  Confeder 
ate  forces.  Colonel  Hallowell  says:  "The 
Governor  counselled  with  certain  leading  col 
ored  men  of  Boston.  He  put  the  question, 
Will  your  people  enlist  in  my  regiments? 
'They  will  not/  was  the  reply  of  all  but  Hay- 
den.  'We  have  no  objection  to  white  officers, 
but  our  self-respect  demands  that  competent 
colored  men  shall  be  at  least  eligible  to  promo 
tion.  '  ' '  By  the  last  of  February  less  than  two 
companies  had  been  recruited,  and  the  pros 
pects  of  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts  did  not 
look  hopeful. 

When  Governor  Andrew  was  in  doubt  he  usu 
ally  sent  for  Frank  W.  Bird  and  George  L. 
Stearns,  but  this  time  Mr.  Stearns  was  before 
him.  To  the  Governor's  question,  "What  is  to 
done?"  he  replied,  "If  you  will  obtain  funds 
from  the  Legislature  for  their  transportation, 
I  will  recruit  you  a  regiment  among  the  black 
men  of  Ohio  and  Canada  West.  There  are  a 
great  many  runaways  in  Canada,  and  those  are 
the  ones  who  will  go  back  and  fight."  "Very 
good,"  said  the  Governor;  "go  as  soon  as  you 
can,  and  our  friend  Bird  will  take  care  of  the 
appropriation  bill."  A  handsome  recruiting 
fund  for  incidental  expenses  had  already  been 
raised,  to  which  Mr.  Stearns  was,  as  usual,  one 
of  the  largest  subscribers. 

He  arrived  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  the  next 


THE    COLORED    REGIMENTS  265 

day  at  noon,  and  went  to  a  colored  barber  to 
have  his  hair  cut.  He  disclosed  the  object  of 
his  mission,  and  the  barber  promised  to  bring 
some  of  his  friends  together  to  discuss  the  mat 
ter  that  evening.  The  following  evening  Mr. 
Stearns  called  a  meeting  of  the  colored  resi 
dents  of  Buffalo,  and  made  an  address  to  them, 
urging  the  importance  of  the  occasion,  and  the 
advantage  it  would  be  to  their  brethren  in  slav 
ery  and  to  the  future  of  the  negro  race,  if  they 
were  to  become  well-drilled  and  practiced  sol 
diers.  "When  you  have  rifles  in  your  hands," 
he  said, '  *  your  freedom  will  be  secure. ' '  To  the 
objection  that  only  white  officers  were  being 
commissioned  for  the  colored  regiments  he  re 
plied  :  i  i  See  how  public  opinion  changes ;  how 
rapidly  we  move  forward!  Only  three  months 
ago  I  was  hissed  in  a  town  meeting  for  propos 
ing  the  enlistment  of  colored  troops ;  and  now 
here  we  are !  I  have  no  doubt  that  before  six 
months  a  number  of  colored  officers  will  be 
commissioned."  His  speech  was  received  with 
applause;  but  when  he  asked,  "Now  who  will 
volunteer  ? ' '  there  was  a  prolonged  silence.  At 
length  a  sturdy-looking  fellow  arose  and  said: 
"I  would  enlist  if  I  felt  sure  that  my  wife  and 
children  would  not  suffer  for  it."  "I  will  look 
after  your  family, ' '  said  Mr.  Stearns,  ' '  and  see 
that  they  want  for  nothing;  but  it  is  a  favor  I 
cannot  promise  again."  After  this  ten  or 


266  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

twelve  more  enrolled  themselves,  and  having 
provided  for  their  maintenance  until  they  could 
be  transported  to  the  camp  at  Beadville,  he 
went  over  to  Niagara,  on  the  Canada  side,  to 
see  what  might  be  effected  in  that  vicinity. 

In  less  than  a  week  he  was  again  in  Buffalo 
arranging  a  recruiting  bureau,  with  agencies  in 
Canada  and  the  Western  States  as  far  as  St. 
Louis — where  there  were  a  large  number  of 
refugees  who  had  lately  been  liberated  by 
Grant's  campaign  at  Vicksburg.  Mr.  Lucian  B. 
Eaton,  an  old  lawyer  and  prominent  politician 
of  the  city,  accepted  the  agency  there  as  a  work 
of  patriotic  devotion.  Among  Mr.  Stearns 's 
most  successful  agents  were  the  Langston 
brothers,  colored  scions  of  a  noble  Virginia 
family, — both  excellent  men  and  influential 
among  their  people.  All  his  agents  were  re 
quired  to  write  a  letter  to  him  every  evening, 
giving  an  account  of  their  day's  work,  and 
every  week  to  send  him  an  account  of  their  ex 
penses.  Thus  Mr.  Stearns  sat  at  his  desk  and 
directed  their  movements  by  telegraph  as  easily 
as  pieces  on  a  chess-board.  The  appropriation 
for  transportation  had  already  passed  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature,  but  where  this  did 
not  suffice  to  meet  an  emergency  he  drew  freely 
on  his  own  resources. 

By  the  last  of  April  recruits  were  coming  in 
at  the  rate  of  thirty  or  forty  a  day,  and  Mr. 


THE    COLORED    REGIMENTS  267 

Stearns  telegraphed  to  the  Governor:  "I  can 
fill  up  another  regiment  for  you  in  less  than  six 
weeks/' — a  hint  which  resulted  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  Fifty-fifth,  with  Norwood  P.  Hallowell, 
a  gallant  officer  who  had  been  wounded  at  Antie- 
tam,  for  its  commander. 

The  Governor,  however,  appears  to  have  sud 
denly  changed  his  mind,  for  on  May  7th  Mr. 
Stearns  wrote  to  his  wife : 

"  Yesterday  at  noon  I  learned  from  Governor  Andrew 
by  telegram  that  he  did  not  intend  to  raise  another  regi 
ment.  I  was  thunderstruck.  My  work  for  three  weeks 
would  nearly,  or  quite,  fall  to  the  ground.  I  telegraphed 
in  reply :  '  You  told  me  to  take  all  the  men  I  could  get 
without  regard  to  regiments.  Have  two  hundred  men  on 
the  way;  what  shall  I  do  with  them?7  The  reply  came 
simultaneously  with  your  letter :  '  Considering  your  tele 
graph  and  Wild's  advice,  another  regiment  may  proceed, 
expecting  it  full  in  four  weeks.  Present  want  of  troops 
will  probably  prevent  my  being  opposed.'  I  replied :  '  I 
thank  God  for  your  telegram  received  this  morning.  You 
shall  have  the  men  in  four  weeks.'  Now  all  is  right." 

The  Surgeon-General  had  detailed  one  Dr. 
Browne  for  duty  at  Buffalo  to  examine  Mr. 
Stearns 's  recruits,  and  if  found  fit  for  service 
by  him  there  was  presumably  no  need  of  a  sec 
ond  examination.  This,  however,  did  not  suit 
the  medical  examiner  at  Eeadville,  who  either 
from  ill  will  or  from  some  unknown  motive,  in 
sisted  on  rejecting  every  sixth  man  sent  there 


268  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

from  the  West.  Thus  there  was  entailed  on  Mr. 
Stearns  an  immense  expense  which  he  had  no 
funds  to  meet,  and  he  was  obliged  to  make  a 
private  loan  of  ten  thousand  dollars  without 
knowing  in  the  least  how  or  where  he  was  to  be 
reimbursed. 

Finally,  on  May  8,  Mr.  Stearns  made  a  re 
monstrance  against  this  abuse  to  Governor 
Andrew  in  a  letter  in  which  he  also  gave  this 
account  of  himself : 

"  I  have  worked  every  day,  Sunday  included,  for  more 
than  two  months  and  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hours  a  day; 
I  have  filled  the  West  with  my  agents;  I  have  compelled 
the  railroads  to  accept  lower  terms  of  transportation  than 
the  Government  rates;  I  have  filled  a  letter-book  of  five 
hundred  pages,  most  of  it  closely  written." 

This  letter  is  now  in  the  archives  of  the  State 
House  at  Boston,  and  on  the  back  of  it  Gover 
nor  Andrew  has  written : 

"  This  letter  is  respy.  referred  to  Surgeon-General  Dole 
with  the  request  that  he  would  confer  with  Surgeon  Stone 
and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Hallowell.  It  is  surprising,  and  not 
fair  nor  fit,  that  a  man  trying  as  Mr.  Stearns  is,  to  serve 
the  country  at  a  risk,  should  suffer  thus  by  such  disagree 
ment  of  opinion. 

"  JOHN  A.  ANDREW." 

Shortly  after  this  Mr.  Stearns  returned  to 
Boston  for  a  brief  visit,  and  was  met  in  the 
street  by  a  philanthropic  lady,  Mrs.  E.  D. 


THE    COLORED   REGIMENTS  269 

Cheney,  who  asked :  "  Where  have  you  been  all 
this  time,  Mr.  Stearns!  I  supposed  you  were 
going  to  help  us  organize  the  colored  regiment  ? 
You  will  be  glad  to  know  that  it  is  doing  well. 
We  have  nearly  a  thousand  men. ' '  Mr.  Stearns 
made  no  reply,  but  bowed  and  passed  on.  This 
is  the  more  surprising,  as  Mrs.  Cheney  was 
president  of  a  society  of  ladies  who  had  pre 
sented  the  Fifty-fourth  Regiment  with  a  flag; 
but  the  fault  would  seem  to  have  been  more  that 
of  others  than  her  own.  At  the  celebration 
which  took  place  on  the  departure  of  the  regi 
ment  for  South  Carolina,  however,  Wendell 
Phillips  said:  "We  owe  it  chiefly  to  a  private 
citizen,  to  George  L.  Stearns,  of  Medford,  that 
these  heroic  men  are  mustered  into  the  ser 
vice," — a  statement  which  astonished  a  good 
many.* 

The  Governors  of  the  Western  States  had 
never  considered  their  colored  population  as  of 
any  importance,  but  now,  when  it  was  being 
drained  off  to  fill  up  the  quota  of  Massachusetts 
troops  they  began  to  think  differently.  The 
Governor  of  Ohio  advised  Governor  Andrew 
that  no  more  recruiting  could  be  permitted  in 
his  State  unless  the  recruits  were  assigned  to 

*  The  statement  made  by  Governor  Andrew's  private  sec 
retary  concerning  the  colored  regiments  in  his  memoir  of 
the  Governor  would  seem  to  have  been  intentionally  mis 
leading. 


270  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  Ohio  quota.  Andrew  replied  that  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Ohio  was  at  liberty  to  recruit  colored 
regiments  of  his  own;  but  the  Massachusetts 
Fifty-fifth,  having  now  a  complement,  it  was  de 
cided  not  to  continue  the  business  any  further, 
and  Mr.  Stearns 's  labors  at  Buffalo  were  thus 
brought  to  an  end  about  the  middle  of  June.  He 
had  recruited  fully  one-half  of  the  Fifty-fourth, 
and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Fifty-fifth  regi 
ments. 

He  now  conceived  the  idea  of  making  his  re 
cruiting  bureau  serviceable  by  placing  it  in  the 
hands  of  the  Government.  He  therefore  went  to 
Washington  and  meeting  his  friend,  Mr.  Fred 
Law  Olmstead,  at  Willard's  Hotel,  the  latter 
offered  to  go  with  him  to  the  War  Department 
and  introduce  him  to  Secretary  Stanton.  They 
found  Stanton  fully  alive  to  the  occasion,  and 
in  reply  to  Mr.  Stearns 's  offer  he  said : 

"  I  have  heard  of  your  recruiting  bureau,  and  I  think 
you  would  be  the  best  man  to  run  the  machine  you  have  con 
structed.  I  will  make  you  an  Assistant  Adjutant-General 
with  the  rank  of  Major,  and  I  will  give  you  authority  to 
recruit  colored  regiments  all  over  the  country." 

Stearns  thanked  him,  and  replied  that  there  was 
nothing  which  he  had  so  much  at  heart  as  en 
listing  the  black  men  on  a  large  scale;  for  no 
people  could  be  said  to  be  secure  in  their  free 
dom  unless  they  were  also  soldiers ;  but  his  wife 


THE    COLORED    REGIMENTS  271 

was  unwell,  and  had  suffered  much  from  his 
absence  already,  and  he  did  not  feel  that  he 
ought  to  accept  the  offer  without  her  consent. 
In  answer  to  the  question  how  funds  for  re 
cruiting  were  to  he  obtained  without  any  ap 
propriation  by  Congress,  Mr.  Stanton  said 
they  could  be  supplied  from  the  Secret  Ser 
vice  fund. 

When  Mr.  Stearns  and  Mr.  Olmstead  were 
alone  on  the  street  again,  the  latter  said:  "Mr. 
Stearns,  go  to  your  room  and  sleep  if  you  can.'7 

Having  returned  to  Boston,  to  arrange  his 
affairs  for  a  prolonged  absence,  and  having  ob 
tained  his  wife's  consent,  Mr.  Stearns  ordered 
his  recruiting  bureau  to  report  at  Philadelphia, 
where  he  soon  after  followed  it. 

The  battle  of  Gettysburg  had  stirred  Phila 
delphia  to  its  foundations,  and  its  citizens  were 
prepared  to  welcome  anything  that  promised  a 
vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war.  Major 
Stearns  was  at  once  enrolled  among  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Union  League  Club,  the  parent  of 
all  the  union  leagues  in  the  country,  and  was 
invited  to  the  meetings  of  various  other  clubs 
and  fashionable  entertainments.  A  recruiting 
committee  was  formed  from  among  the  most 
prominent  men  in  the  city.  Camp  William 
Penn,  while  the  colored  regiment  was  being 
drilled,  became  a  fashionable  resort,  and  fine 
equipages  filled  the  road  thither  every  after- 


272  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

noon.  By  the  middle  of  July  the  first  regiment 
was  nearly  full. 

Fine  weather  does  not  often  last  more  than  a 
few  weeks  at  a  time,  and  in  the  midst  of  these 
festivities  suddenly  came  Secretary  Stanton 's 
order  reducing  the  pay  of  colored  soldiers  from 
thirteen  to  eight  dollars  a  month.  This  was  a 
breach  of  contract  and  the  men  had  a  right  to 
their  discharge  if  they  wished  it;  but  that,  of 
course,  was  not  permitted  them.  Such  an  action 
could  only  be  excused  on  the  ground  of  extreme 
necessity.  The  Massachusetts  Legislature 
promptly  voted  to  pay  the  deficiency  to  the 
Fifty-fourth  and  Fifty-fifth  regiments ;  but  the 
one  at  Philadelphia  was  in  organization,  and 
Mr.  Stearns  found  himself  in  the  position  of  a 
man  who  has  made  promises  which  he  is  unable 
to  fulfil. 

Hon.  William  D.  Kelley  and  two  other  gentle 
men  of  the  committee  went  with  Major  Stearns 
to  Washington  to  see  Stanton,  and  endeavored 
to  persuade  him  to  revoke  the  order.  Kelley 
was  one  of  the  most  persistent  debaters  who 
ever  sat  in  Congress,  and  he  argued  the  ques 
tion  with  the  Secretary  of  War  for  more  than 
an  hour, — to  the  great  disgust  of  the  latter, — 
but  Stanton  was  as  firm  as  Napoleon  ever  was. 
Major  Stearns  never  had  another  pleasant  in 
terview  with  him. 

The    Secretary's   argument  was   that   some 


THE    COLORED    REGIMENTS  273 

white  regiments  had  complained  of  being  placed 
on  an  equality  with  negroes,  and  that  it  inter 
fered  with  recruiting  white  soldiers.  There  was 
doubtless  some  reason  in  this ;  but  the  same  re 
sult  might  have  been  obtained  by  a  smaller 
reduction. 

The  next  morning  some  one  remarked  to 
Major  Stearns  that  it  was  exceedingly  hot 
weather,  even  for  Washington,  and  his  reply 
was :  "Yes,  but  the  fever  within  is  worse  than 
the  heat  without. "  He  talked  of  resigning; 
but  finally  said,  decisively,  "I  will  go  and  con 
sult  with  Olmstead." 

He  found  Mr.  Olmstead  friendly  and  sympa 
thetic.  He  spoke  of  Secretary  Stanton  in  no 
complimentary  terms,  but  he  advised  Mr. 
Stearns  to  continue  with  his  work,  and  endure 
all  that  he  could  for  the  good  of  the  cause, — not 
to  be  worried  by  evils  for  which  he  was  in  no 
way  responsible.  Mr.  Stearns  returned  to  Wil- 
lard's  with  a  more  cheerful  countenance. 

In  the  afternoon  Judge  Kelley  came  in  with 
the  news  of  the  repulse  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
Massachusetts  regiment  at  Fort  Wagner  and 
the  death  of  Colonel  Shaw. 

There  was  a  colored  regiment  in  process  of 
formation  at  Baltimore,  and  another  was  sup 
posed  to  be  organizing  at  Fortress  Monroe. 
Both  were  nominally  under  Mr.  Stearns 's  su 
pervision,  and  he  inspected  the  former  on  his 

18 


274  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

return  trip  to  Philadelphia,  and  sent  his  son  to 
investigate  and  report  on  the  latter.  Not  the 
trace  of  a  colored  regiment  could  be  discovered 
at  Fortress  Monroe,  but  there  were  scores  of 
Union  officers  lounging  and  smoking  on  the 
piazza  of  the  Hygeia  Hotel.  Mr.  Stearns 
thought  that  business  economy  had  better  begin 
by  reducing  the  number  of  officers  rather  than 
the  pay  of  the  soldiers. 

On  July  28  Major  Stearns  wrote  from  Bal 
timore  : 

"  I  am  still  perplexed  as  to  the  mode  in  which  I  can  best 
carry  out  the  work  intrusted  to  me.  It  is  so  difficult  to  ad 
just  my  mode  of  rapid  working  to  the  slow  routine  of  the 
Department  that  I  sometimes  almost  despair  of  the  task  and 
want  to  abandon  it." 

No  private  business  could  succeed  if  carried 
on  after  the  manner  of  the  National  Govern 
ment  at  that  time,  and  this  was  not  the  fault  of 
Lincoln 's  administration  at  all,  but  of  the  whole 
course  of  Jackson  democracy  from  1829  to  1861. 
The  clerks  in  the  various  departments  did  not 
hold  their  positions  from  the  heads  of  those 
departments,  but  from  outside  politicians  who 
had  no  connection  with  the  Government  busi 
ness,  and  as  a  consequence  they  were  saucy  and 
insubordinate.  They  found  it  to  their  interest 
to  delay  and  obstruct  the  procedure  of  business 
in  order  to  give  the  impression  that  they  were 
overworked,  and  in  that  way  make  their  posi- 


THE    COLORED    REGIMENTS  275 

tions  more  secure  and  if  possible  of  greater 
importance. 

Major  Stearns  had  found  himself  continually 
embarrassed  in  his  Government  service  from 
lack  of  sufficient  funds,  and  the  continual  delay 
in  having  his  accounts  audited.  The  auditors 
of  the  War  Department  repeatedly  took  excep 
tion  to  expenditures  that  were  absolutely  neces 
sary,  and  he  was  obliged  to  advance  large  sums 
from  his  own  capital  in  order  to  provide  the 
current  expenses  of  his  agents.  In  this  emer 
gency  he  returned  to  Boston  and  held  a  confer 
ence  with  Mr.  John  M.  Forbes  and  other 
friends ;  and  they  all  agreed  that  he  ought  to 
be  better  supported  in  the  work  of  recruiting 
than  he  had  been.  A  subscription  was  imme 
diately  set  on  foot,  and  in  a  few  days  a  recruit 
ing  fund  of  about  thirty  thousand  dollars  was 
raised  and  placed  in  charge  of  Mr.  E.  P.  Hal- 
lowell. 

On  September  1,  Secretary  Stanton  trans 
ferred  Major  Stearns  to  Nashville,  where  he 
could  obtain  recruits  in  large  numbers,  not  only 
from  Tennessee  but  from  the  adjoining  States. 
Fugitives  flocked  to  his  standard  from  Ala 
bama,  Mississippi,  and  Kentucky.  For  the  suc 
ceeding  five  months  he  organized  colored  regi 
ments  so  rapidly  that  it  was  with  difficulty  the 
General  commanding  at  Nashville  could  supply 
the  necessary  quota  of  officers  for  them.  His 


276  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

letter-writing  alone  rarely  came  to  less  than 
twenty  pages  a  day,  and  besides  this  he  was 
obliged  to  attend  personally  to  innumerable  de 
tails  which  were  constantly  interfering  with 
more  important  affairs.  Serious  questions  con 
cerning  the  rights  and  legal  position  of  the 
freedmen  were  continually  arising,  and  these 
required  a  cool  head  and  a  clear  understanding 
for  their  solution. 

Edward  J.  Bartlett,  of  Concord,  who  was  one 
of  his  staff  in  Nashville,  stated  afterwards  that 
he  never  saw  a  man  who  could  despatch  so 
much  business  in  a  day  as  George  L.  Stearns. 
He  says : 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  fine  appearance  of  the  first 
regiment  we  sent  off.  They  were  all  picked  men,  and  felt 
a  just  pride  in  wearing  the  blue.  As  fast  as  we  obtained 
enough  recruits  they  were  formed  into  regiments,  officered 
and  sent  to  the  front.  When  men  became  scarce  in  the 
city  we  made  trips  into  the  country,  often  going  beyond 
the  Union  picket  line,  and  generally  reaping  a  harvest  of 
slaves.  These  expeditions  brought  an  element  of  danger 
into  our  lives,  for  our  forage  parties  were  fired  into  by  the 
enemy  more  than  once,  but  we  always  succeeded  in  bring 
ing  back  our  men  with  us.  The  black  regiments  did  valua 
ble  service  for  the  Union,  leaving  their  dead  on  many  a 
southern  battle-field.  Mr.  Stearns  was  a  noble  man,  cour 
teous,  with  great  executive  ability,  and  grandly  fitted  for 
the  work  he  was  engaged  in." 

At  this  time  Major  Stearns 's  friend,  General 
Wilde,  was  recruiting  a  colored  brigade  in 


THE    COLORED    REGIMENTS  277 

North  Carolina,  and  General  Ullman  was  or 
ganizing  colored  regiments  in  Louisiana. 

Major  Stearns 's  labors  were  brought  to  a 
close  in  February,  1864,  by  the  eccentric  con 
duct  of  Secretary  Stanton, — the  reason  for 
which  has  never  been  explained.  He  obtained 
leave  of  absence  to  return  to  Boston  at  Christ 
mas  time,  and  after  a  brief  visit  to  his  family 
went  to  Washington  and  called  upon  the  Secre 
tary  of  War,  who  declined  to  see  him  three  days 
in  succession.  On  the  evening  of  the  fourth  day 
he  met  Mr.  Stanton  at  an  evening  party  and 
Stanton  said  to  him  in  his  roughest  manner: 
"  Major  Stearns,  why  are  you  not  in  Tennes 
see!"  This  was  a  breach  of  official  etiquette 
on  the  part  of  the  Secretary  of  War  and  Major 
Stearns  sent  in  his  resignation  at  once.  His 
reason  for  doing  so,  however,  was  not  so  much 
on  account  of  this  personal  slight  as  from  the 
conclusion  that  he  had  accomplished  all  that 
was  essential  to  be  done  in  this  line.  His  chief 
assistant  at  Nashville,  Capt.  E.  D.  Muzzey,  was 
an  able  man  and  perfectly  competent  to  run  the 
machine  which  Mr.  Stearns  had  constructed. 

The  importance  of  his  work  cannot  readily 
be  measured.  It  was  no  longer  easy  to  obtain 
white  volunteers.  With  a  population  ten  mil 
lions  less  than  that  of  France,  the  Northern 
States  were  maintaining  an  army  much  larger 
than  the  one  which  accompanied  Napoleon  to 


278  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Moscow.  General  Thomas's  right  wing,  at  the 
battle  of  Nashville,  was  formed  almost  entirely 
of  colored  regiments.  They  were  ordered  to 
make  a  feint  attack  on  the  enemy,  so  as  to  with 
draw  attention  from  the  flanking  movement  of 
his  veterans  on  the  left;  but  when  the  charge 
had  once  begun  their  officers  were  unable  to 
keep  them  in  check — the  feint  was  changed  into 
a  real  attack  and  contributed  largely  to  the  most 
decisive  victory  of  the  whole  war. 

In  his  last  annual  Message  President  Lincoln 
congratulated  Congress  on  the  success  of  the 
Government's  policy  in  raising  negro  regi 
ments,  and  on  the  efficiency  of  the  troops  or 
ganized  in  this  way.  It  seems  very  doubtful  if 
the  war  could  have  been  brought  to  a  successful 
termination  without  them. 

In  1898  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  at 
the  instance  of  the  veterans  of  the  Fifty-fourth 
and  Fifty-fifth  regiments,  voted  to  have  a 
memorial  tablet  for  the  public  services  of 
George  Luther  Stearns  set  up  in  the  Doric  Hall 
of  Boston  State  House,  and  the  act  was  ap 
proved  by  Governor  Walcott,  who  sent  the  quill 
with  which  he  signed  it  to  Major  Stearns  ?s 
widow. 


EMERSON'S    TRIBUTE 

TO  GEORGE  L.  STEAKNS. 

Delivered  in  the  First  Parish  Church  of  Medford  on  the 
Sunday  following  Major  Stearns's  death,  April  9,  1867. 

"  We  do  not  know  how  to  prize  good  men  until 
they  depart.  High  virtue  has  such  an  air  of 
nature  and  necessity  that  to  thank  its  possessor 
would  be  to  praise  the  water  for  flowing  or  the 
fire  for  warming  us.  But,  on  the  instant  of 
their  death,  we  wonder  at  our  past  insensibility, 
when  we  see  how  impossible  it  is  to  replace 
them.  There  will  be  other  good  men,  but  not 
these  again.  And  the  painful  surprise  which 
the  last  week  brought  us,  in  the  tidings  of  the 
death  of  Mr.  Stearns,  opened  all  eyes  to  the 
just  consideration  of  the  singular  merits  of 
the  citizen,  the  neighbor,  the  friend,  the  father, 
and  the  husband,  whom  this  assembly  mourns. 
We  recall  the  all  but  exclusive  devotion  of 
this  excellent  man  during  the  last  twelve 
years  to  public  and  patriotic  interests.  Known 
until  that  time  in  no  very  wide  circle  as  a  man 
of  skill  and  perseverance  in  his  business ;  of 
pure  life;  of  retiring  and  affectionate  habits; 

279 


280  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

happy  in  his  domestic  relations, — his  extreme 
interest  in  the  national  politics,  then  growing 
more  anxious  year  by  year,  engaged  him  to 
scan  the  fortunes  of  freedom  with  keener  atten 
tion.  He  was  an  early  laborer  in  the  resistance 
to  slavery.  This  brought  him  into  sympathy 
with  the  people  of  Kansas.  As  early  as  1855 
the  Emigrant  Aid  Society  was  formed ;  and  in 
1856  he  organized  the  Massachusetts  State 
Kansas  Committee,  by  means  of  which  a  large 
amount  of  money  was  obtained  for  the  i  free- 
State  men,'  at  times  of  the  greatest  need. 
He  was  the  more  engaged  to  this  cause  by 
making  in  1857  the  acquaintance  of  Captain 
John  Brown,  who  was  not  only  an  extraordi 
nary  man,  but  one  who  had  a  rare  magnetism 
for  men  of  character,  and  attached  some  of  the 
best  and  noblest  to  him,  on  very  short  acquaint 
ance,  by  lasting  ties.  Mr.  Stearns  made  him 
self  at  once  necessary  to  Captain  Brown  as  one 
who  respected  his  inspirations,  and  had  the 
magnanimity  to  trust  him  entirely,  and  to  arm 
his  hands  with  all  needed  help. 

"For  the  relief  of  Kansas,  in  1856-57,  his 
own  contributions  were  the  largest  and  the  first. 
He  never  asked  any  one  to  give  so  much  as  he 
himself  gave,  and  his  interest  was  so  manifestly 
pure  and  sincere  that  he  easily  obtained  eager 
offerings  in  quarters  where  other  petitioners 
failed.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  become  the 


EMERSON'S    TRIBUTE  281 

banker  of  his  clients,  and  to  furnish  them  money 
and  arms  in  advance  of  the  subscriptions  which 
he  obtained.  His  first  donations  were  only 
entering  wedges  of  his  later ;  and,  unlike  other 
benefactors,  he  did  not  give  money  to  excuse 
his  entire  preoccupation  in  his  own  pursuits, 
but  as  an  earnest  of  the  dedication  of  his  heart 
and  hand  to  the  interests  of  the  sufferers, — a 
pledge  kept  until  the  success  he  wrought  and 
prayed  for  was  consummated.  In  1862,  on  the 
President's  first  or  preliminary  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation,  he  took  the  first  steps  for 
organizing  the  Freedman's  Bureau, — a  depart 
ment  which  has  since  grown  to  great  propor 
tions.  In  1863,  he  began  to  recruit  colored  sol 
diers  in  Buffalo;  then  at  Philadelphia  and 
Nashville.  But  these  were  only  parts  of  his 
work.  He  passed  his  time  in  incessant  consul 
tations  with  all  men  whom  he  could  reach,  to 
suggest  and  urge  the  measures  needed  for  the 
hour.  And  there  are  few  men  of  real  or  sup 
posed  influence,  North  or  South,  with  whom  he 
has  not  at  some  time  communicated.  Every  im 
portant  patriotic  measure  in  this  region  has 
had  his  sympathy,  and  of  many  he  has  been 
the  prime  mover.  He  gave  to  each  his  strong 
support,  but  uniformly  shunned  to  appear  in 
public.  For  himself  or  his  friends  he  asked  no 
reward:  for  himself,  he  asked  only  to  do  the 
hard  work.  His  transparent  singleness  of  pur- 


282  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

pose,  his  freedom  from  all  by-ends,  his  plain 
good  sense,  courage,  adherence,  and  his  roman 
tic  generosity  disarmed  first  or  last  all  gain- 
sayers.  His  examination  before  the  United 
States  Senate  Committee  on  the  Harper's 
Ferry  Invasion,  in  January,  1860,  as  reported 
in  the  public  documents,  is  a  chapter  well  worth 
reading,  as  a  shining  example  of  the  manner 
in  which  a  truth-speaker  baffles  all  statecraft, 
and  extorts  at  last  a  reluctant  homage  from  the 
bitterest  adversaries. 

"I  have  heard,  what  must  be  true,  that  he 
had  great  executive  skill,  a  clear  method,  and  a 
just  attention  to  all  the  details  of  the  task  in 
hand.  Plainly  he  was  no  boaster  or  pretender, 
but  a  man  for  up-hill  work,  a  soldier  to  bide  the 
brunt ;  a  man  whom  disasters,  which  dishearten 
other  men,  only  stimulated  to  new  courage  and 
endeavor. 

"  I  have  heard  something  of  his  quick  temper : 
that  he  was  indignant  at  this  or  that  man's 
behavior,  but  never  that  his  anger  outlasted  for 
a  moment  the  mischief  done  or  threatened  to 
the  good  cause,  or  ever  stood  in  the  way  of  his 
hearty  co-operation  with  the  offenders,  when 
they  returned  to  the  path  of  public  duty.  I  look 
upon  him  as  a  type  of  the  American  republican. 
A  man  of  the  people,  in  strictly  private  life,  girt 
with  family  ties ;  an  active  and  intelligent  man 
ufacturer  and  merchant,  enlightened  enough  to 


EMERSON'S    TRIBUTE  283 

see  a  citizen 's  interest  in  the  public  affairs,  and 
virtuous  enough  to  obey  to  the  uttermost  the 
truth  he  saw, — he  became,  in  the  most  natural 
manner,  an  indispensable  power  in  the  State. 
Without  such  vital  support  as  he,  and  such  as 
he,  brought  to  the  government,  where  would 
that  government  be  ?  When  one  remembers  his 
incessant  service ;  his  journeys  and  residences 
in  many  States ;  the  societies  he  worked  with ; 
the  councils  in  which  he  sat;  the  wide  corre 
spondence,  presently  enlarged  by  printed  circu 
lars,  then  by  newspapers  established  wholly  or 
partly  at  his  own  cost ;  the  useful  suggestions ; 
the  celerity  with  which  his  purpose  took  form; 
and  his  immovable  convictions, — I  think  this 
single  will  was  worth  to  the  cause  ten  thousand 
ordinary  partisans,  well-disposed  enough,  but 
of  feebler  and  interrupted  action. 

11  These  interests,  which  he  passionately 
adopted,  inevitably  led  him  into  personal  com 
munication  with  patriotic  persons  holding  the 
same  views, — with  two  Presidents,  with  mem 
bers  of  Congress,  with  officers  of  the  govern 
ment  and  of  the  army,  and  with  leading  people 
everywhere.  He  had  been  always  a  man  of  sim 
ple  tastes,  and  through  all  his  years  devoted 
to  the  growing  details  of  his  prospering  manu 
factory.  But  this  sudden  association  now  with 
the  leaders  of  parties  and  persons  of  pro 
nounced  power  and  influence  in  the  nation,  and 


284  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  broad  hospitality  which  brought  them  about 
his  board  at  his  own  house,  or  in  New  York,  or 
in  Washington,  never  altered  one  feature  of  his 
face,  one  trait  in  his  manners.  There  he  sat  in 
the  council,  a  simple,  resolute  Republican,  an 
enthusiast  only  in  his  love  of  freedom  and  the 
good  of  men;  with  no  pride  of  opinion,  and 
with  this  distinction,  that,  if  he  could  not  bring 
his  associates  to  adopt  his  measure,  he  accepted 
with  entire  sweetness  the  next  best  measure 
which  could  secure  their  assent.  But  these  pub 
lic  benefits  were  purchased  at  a  severe  cost. 
For  a  year  or  two,  the  most  affectionate  and 
domestic  of  men  became  almost  a  stranger  in 
his  beautiful  home.  And  it  was  too  plain  that 
the  excessive  toil  and  anxieties  into  which  his 
ardent  spirit  led  him  overtasked  his  strength 
and  wore  out  prematurely  his  constitution.  It 
is  sad  that  such  a  life  should  end  prematurely; 
but  when  I  consider  that  he  lived  long  enough 
to  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  salvation  of  his 
country,  to  which  he  had  given  all  his  heart; 
that  he  did  not  know  an  idle  day;  was  never 
called  to  suffer  under  the  decays  and  loss  of  his 
powers,  or  to  see  that  others  were  waiting  for 
his  place  and  privilege,  but  lived  while  he  lived, 
and  beheld  his  work  prosper  for  the  joy  and 
benefit  of  all  mankind, — I  count  him  happy 
among  men. 

"Almost  I  am  ready  to  say  to  these  mourners, 


EMERSON'S    TRIBUTE  285 

Be  not  too  proud  in  your  grief,  when  you  re 
member  that  there  is  not  a  town  in  the  remote 
State  of  Kansas  that  will  not  weep  with  you  as 
at  the  loss  of  its  founder ;  not  a  Southern  State 
in  which  the  freedmen  will  not  learn  to-day 
from  their  preachers  that  one  of  their  most  effi 
cient  benefactors  has  departed,  and  will  cover 
his  memory  with  benedictions ;  and  that,  after 
all  his  efforts  to  serve  men  without  appearing 
to  do  so,  there  is  hardly  a  man  in  this  country 
worth  knowing  who  does  not  hold  his  name  in 
exceptional  honor.  And  there  is  to  my  mind 
somewhat  so  absolute  in  the  action  of  a  good 
man,  that  we  do  not,  in  thinking  of  him,  so 
much  as  make  any  question  of  the  future.  For 
the  Spirit  of  the  Universe  seems  to  say:  'He 
has  done  well ;  is  not  that  saying  all  ? ' 

This  monograph  was  printed  in  the  Boston  Common 
wealth,  April  20,  1867,  and  has  never  been  republished.  It 
is  exceptional  in  Emerson's  writings  as  the  account  of  a 
man  with  whom  he  was  personally  and  intimately  ac 
quainted. 


ELIZUE   WEIGHT 

THE  influence  of  Ohio  in  the  United  States  of 
America  during  the  past  half  century  may  be 
compared  to  that  of  Virginia  during  the  first 
forty  years  of  the  Eepublic.  All  of  our  Presi 
dents,  elected  as  such  since  1860,  have  come 
from  Ohio,  or  adjacent  territory.  Cleveland 
came  from  beyond  the  Alleghenies,  and  Lincoln 
was  born  on  the  southern  side  of  the  Ohio  Eiver. 
General  Grant  and  General  Sherman  came  from 
Ohio;  and  so  did  Salmon  P.  Chase,  and  John 
Brown,  of  Harper's  Ferry  celebrity.  Chase 
gave  the  country  the  inestimable  blessing  of  a 
national  currency;  and  even  the  Virginians 
admitted  that  John  Brown  was  a  very  remark 
able  person. 

The  fathers  of  these  men  conquered  the  wil 
derness  and  brought  up  their  sons  to  a  sturdy, 
vigorous  manliness,  which  resembles  the  colo 
nial  culture  of  Franklin,  Adams,  and  Wash 
ington. 

Sitting  in  the  same  school-house  with  John 
Brown,  in  1816,  was  a  boy  named  Elizur  Wright 
who,  like  Brown,  came  from  Connecticut,  and 
to  whom  the  people  of  this  country  are  also 
somewhat  under  obligation.  Every  widow  and 
orphan  in  the  United  States  who  receives  the 

286 


ELTZUR   WRIGHT 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  287 

benefit  of  a  life-insurance  policy  owes  a  blessing 
to  Elizur  Wright,  who  was  the  first  to  establish 
life  insurance  in  America  on  a  strong  founda 
tion,  and  whose  reports  on  that  subject,  made 
during  his  long  term  as  Insurance  Commis 
sioner  for  Massachusetts,  have  formed  a  sort 
of  constitution  by  which  the  policy  of  all  life- 
insurance  companies  is  still  guided.  His  name 
deserves  a  place  beside  those  of  Horace  Mann 
and  William  Lloyd  Garrison. 

Apart  from  this,  his  biography  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting,  one  of  the  most  picturesque, 
when  compared  with  those  of  the  many  brilliant 
men  of  his  time.  His  grandfather  was  a  sea 
captain,  and  his  father,  who  was  also  named 
Elizur,  was  a  farmer  in  Canaan,  Connecticut. 
His  mother's  name  was  Clarissa  Eichards,  and 
he  was  born  on  the  twelfth  of  February,  1804. 
In  the  spring  of  1810  the  family  moved  to  Tal- 
mage,  Ohio,  making  the  journey  in  a  two-horse 
carriage  with  an  ox-team  to  transport  their 
household  goods.  Their  progress  was  neces 
sarily  slow,  and  it  was  nearly  six  weeks  before 
they  reached  Talmage,  as  it  was  generally 
necessary  to  camp  at  night  by  the  way-side. 
This  romantic  journey,  the  building  of  their 
log-cabin,  the  clearing  of  the  forest,  and  above 
all  his  solitary  watches  in  the  maple-orchard 
(where  he  might  perhaps  be  attacked  by 
wolves),  made  a  deep  poetic  impression  on 


288  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

young  Elizur,  and  furnished  him  with  a  store 
of  pleasant  memories  in  after  life. 

They  lived  at  first  in  a  log-cabin,  and  after 
wards  his  father  built  a  square  frame-house 
with  a  piazza  and  veranda  in  front,  which  is 
still  standing.  The  school  where  Elizur,  Jr., 
met  John  Brown  was  at  a  long  distance  for  a 
boy  to  walk.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  made 
friends  with  John,  remarkably  alike  as  they 
were  in  veracity,  earnestness,  and  adherence  to 
principle;  but  John  was  somewhat  the  elder, 
and  two  or  three  years  among  boys  counts  for 
more  than  ten  among  grown  people.  In  later 
life,  however,  Mr.  Wright  told  an  interesting 
anecdote  of  young  Brown,  which  runs  as  fol 
lows: 

John  was  the  best-behaved  boy  in  the  school, 
and  for  this  reason  the  teacher  selected  him  to 
occupy  a  vacant  place  beside  the  girls.  Some 
other  boys  were  jealous  of  this,  and  after  call 
ing  Brown  a  milk-sop,  attacked  him  with  snow 
balls.  John  proved  himself  as  good  a  fighter 
then  as  he  did  afterwards  at  Black  Jack.  He 
made  two  or  three  snow-balls,  rushed  in  at  close 
quarters,  and  fought  with  such  energy  that  he 
finally  drove  all  the  boys  before  him. 

Elizur  Wright  may  have  taken  note  of  this 
affair,  and  it  served  him  when  he  entered  Yale 
College  in  1822.  He  had  never  heard  of  hazing, 
and  when  the  Sophomores  came  to  his  room  to 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  289 

tease  him,  lie  received  them  with  true  Western 
cordiality.  He  found  out  his  mistake  quickly 
enough,  and  at  the  first  insult  he  rose  in  wrath 
and  ordered  them  out  with  such  furious  looks 
that  they  concluded  it  was  hest  to  go. 

He  helped  to  support  himself  during  his  col 
lege  course  not  only  by  teaching  in  winter,  but 
by  making  fires,  waiting  on  table,  and  ringing 
the  recitation  bell.  In  spite  of  these  menial 
services,  he  was  popular  in  his  class  and  had 
a  number  of  aristocratic  friends, — among  them 
Philip  Van  Rensselaer.  He  was  one  of  the  best 
scholars  in  his  class, — first  in  mathematics,  and 
so  fluent  in  Greek  that  to  the  end  of  his  life  he 
could  read  it  with  ease. 

He  did  not  wait  for  graduation.  In  May, 
1826,  the  Groton  Academy  suddenly  wanted  a 
teacher,  and  Elizur  Wright  was  invited  to  take 
the  position.  The  college  faculty  sent  him  his 
degree  a  month  later, — which  they  might  not 
have  done  if  they  had  known  how  little  he 
cared  for  it.  In  his  school  at  Groton  was  a 
pretty,  dark-eyed  girl  named  Susan  Clark,  who, 
for  two  years  previously,  had  been  at  school 
with  Margaret  Fuller  and  was  very  well  ac 
quainted  with  her.  Elizur  Wright  became  inter 
ested  in  Miss  Clark,  and  three  years  later  they 
were  married. 

One  day,  while  he  was  living  at  Groton,  Mr. 
Wright  went  by  the  Boston  stage  to  Fitchburg, 

19 


290  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

and  on  his  return  held  a  long  conversation  with 
a  fellow-passenger,  a  tall,  slender  young  man 
with  aquiline  features,  who  gave  his  name  as 
Ealph  Waldo  Emerson.  Mr.  Wright  found  him 
an  exceedingly  interesting  gentleman,  but  of  so 
fragile  an  appearance  that  it  seemed  impossible 
that  he  should  live  many  years. 

From  this  time  the  paths  of  these  two  young 
scholars  diverged.  Emerson  became  an  idealist 
and  an  ethical  reformer.  Elizur  Wright  became 
a  realist  and  a  political  reformer.  Realism 
seems  to  belong  to  the  soil  of  Ohio. 

Ill  health  came  next  in  turn,  a  natural  conse 
quence  of  his  severe  life  at  Yale  College.  He 
was  obliged  to  leave  his  school,  and  for  an  occu 
pation  he  circulated  tracts  for  the  American 
Congregational  Society,  making  a  stipulation, 
however,  which  was  characteristic  of  him,  that 
he  should  not  distribute  any  that  ran  contrary 
to  his  convictions.  In  this  itinerant  fashion  he 
became  sufficiently  recuperated  at  the  end  of  a 
year  to  marry  Miss  Clark,  September  13,  1829, 
and  accept  the  professorship  of  mathematics  at 
Western  Eeserve  College,  at  Hudson,  Ohio. 
There  he  remained  till  1833,  strengthening  him 
self  in  the  repose  of  matrimony  for  the  conflict 
that  lay  before  him, — a  conflict  that  every  jus 
tice-loving  man  feels  that  he  will  have  to  face  at 
one  time  or  another. 

This  probably  came  sooner  than  he  expected. 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  291 

Some  anti-slavery  tracts,  circulated  by  Garri 
son,  reached  Western  Eeserve  College  and  set 
the  place  in  a  ferment.  Elizur  Wright  became 
the  champion  of  the  anti-slavery  movement,  not 
only  in  the  town  of  Hudson  but  throughout  the 
State.  What  Garrison  was  in  New  England  he 
became  in  the  West.  In  the  spring  of  1833  he 
resigned  his  professorship  and  spent  the  next 
five  months  delivering  lectures  on  the  slavery 
question.  In  December  of  the  same  year  the 
first  national  anti-slavery  convention  met  in 
Philadelphia,  and  Elizur  Wright  was  unani 
mously  chosen  secretary  of  it.  After  that  he 
went  to  New  York  to  edit  a  newspaper,  the 
Anti-Slavery  Reporter,  remaining  until  1839. 
During  the  pro-slavery  riot  in  New  York  he 
was  attacked  on  the  sidewalk  by  two  men  with 
knives,  but  instantly  rescued  by  some  teamsters 
who  were  passing.  When  he  reached  his  home 
in  Brooklyn  he  found  a  note  from  the  Mayor 
advising  him  to  leave  the  city  for  some  days; 
to  which  he  replied  advising  the  Mayor  to  stop 
the  New  York  ferry-boats.  Meanwhile,  as  Mrs. 
Wright  was  too  ill  to  be  removed,  he  purchased 
an  axe  and  prepared  to  defend  his  house  to  the 
last  extremity.  The  Mayor,  however,  adopted 
his  advice,  and  by  this  excellent  stratagem 
Brooklyn  was  saved  from  the  fury  of  the  mob. 
In  1837  he  moved  to  Dorchester,  Massachu 
setts,  to  prosecute  a  similar  work  in  Boston. 


292  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Nothing  is  more  remarkable  in  Mr.  Wright's 
life  than  his  perfect  self-poise  and  peace  of 
mind  during  such  a  long  period  of  external 
agitation.  It  is  doubtful,  in  spite  of  his  highly 
nervous  temperament,  if  he  ever  lost  a  night's 
sleep.  When  he  was  editing  the  Chronotype, 
and  waiting  for  the  telegraphic  news  to  arrive, 
he  would  sometimes  lie  down  on  a  pile  of  news 
papers  and  go  to  sleep  in  less  than  half  a  minute. 
For  mental  relaxation  he  studied  the  higher 
mathematics  and  wrote  poetry — much  of  it  very 
good.  His  faith  in  Divine  Providence  was  abso 
lute.  He  had  the  soul  of  a  hero. 

During  his  first  years  in  Boston,  Elizur 
Wright  translated  La  Fontaine's  Fables  into 
English  verse, — one  of  the  best  metrical  ver 
sions  of  a  foreign  poet, — and  it  is  much  to  be 
regretted  that  the  book  is  out  of  print.  It  did 
not  sell,  of  course,  and  Elizur  Wright,  deter 
mined  that  neither  he  nor  the  publisher  should 
lose  money  on  it,  undertook  to  sell  it  himself. 
In  carrying  out  this  plan  he  met  with  some 
curious  experiences.  He  called  on  Professor 
Ticknor,  who  received  him  kindly,  spoke  well 
of  his  translation,  offered  to  dispose  of  a  num 
ber  of  copies,  but — advised  him  to  keep  clear  of 
the  slavery  question. 

He  went  to  Washington  with  the  twofold 
object  of  selling  his  book  and  talking  emancipa 
tion  to  our  national  legislators;  and  he  sue- 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  293 

ceeded  in  both  attempts,  for  there  were  few  men 
who  liked  to  argue  with  Elizur  Wright.  His 
brain  was  a  store-house  of  facts  and  his  analy 
sis  of  them  equally  keen  and  cutting.  One  Con 
gressman,  a  very  gentlemanly  Virginian,  said 
to  him:  "Mr.  Wright,  I  wish  you  could  go 
across  the  Potomac  and  look  over  my  district. 
I  think  you  will  find  that  African  slavery  is  not 
half  as  bad  as  it  is  represented."  Elizur 
Wright  went  and  returned  with  the  emphatic 
reply :  "  I  find  it  much  worse  than  I  expected. ' ' 
Having  disposed  of  more  than  half  of  his 
edition  in  this  manner,  in  the  spring  of  1842 
he  went  to  England,  and  with  the  kind  assist 
ance  of  Browning  and  Pringle  succeeded  in 
placing  the  rest  of  his  books  there  to  his  satis 
faction.  Having  a  great  admiration  for  Words 
worth 's  poetry,  he  made  a  long  journey  to  see 
that  celebrated  author,  but  only  to  be  affronted 
by  Wordsworth's  saying  that  America  would 
be  a  good  place  if  there  were  only  a  few  gentle 
men  in  it.  With  Carlyle  he  had,  as  might  have 
been  expected,  a  furious  argument  on  the 
slavery  question,  and  "King  Thomas, "  as  Dr. 
Holmes  calls  him,  encountered  for  once  a  head 
as  hard  as  his  own.  The  Brownings,  Robert 
and  Elizabeth,  received  him  with  true  English 
hospitality.  More  experienced  than  Words 
worth  in  the  great  world,  they  recognized  Elizur 
Wright  to  be  what  he  was, — a  man  of  intellect 


294  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

and  rare  integrity.  Mr.  Wright  always  spoke 
of  Browning  as  one  of  the  most  satisfactory 
men  with  whom  he  had  ever  conversed. 

In  1840,  as  is  well  known,  the  anti-slavery 
movement  became  divided  into  those  who  still 
believed  in  the  efficacy  of  "moral  suasion "  and 
those  who  considered  that  the  time  had  come 
for  introducing  the  question  into  practical  poli 
tics.  The  Texas  question  made  the  latter  course 
inevitable,  and  Elizur  Wright  concluded  that 
moral  suasion  had  done  its  work.  As  he  ex 
pressed  it,  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Maria  Chapman : 
"Garrison  has  already  left  his  enemies  thrice 
dead  behind  him."  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 
convention  of  April  1,  1840,  which  nominated 
James  G.  Birney  for  the  Presidency,  and  took 
an  active  share  in  the  Free-soil  movement  of 
1844, — a  movement  which  produced  exactly  the 
opposite  effect  from  that  which  was  intended; 
for  the  defeat  of  Henry  Clay  opened  the  door 
for  the  Mexican  war  and  the  annexation  of  a 
much  larger  territory  than  Texas.  If  Clay  had 
been  elected,  the  history  of  the  United  States 
must  have  been  different  from  what  it  has 
proved. 

How  Elizur  Wright  supported  his  family  dur 
ing  this  long  period  of  philanthropy  will  always 
be  a  mystery,  but  support  them  he  did.  He  had 
no  regular  salary  like  Garrison,  but,  in  an  emer 
gency,  he  could  turn  his  hand  to  almost  any- 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  295 

thing,  and  earn  money  by  odd  jobs.  Fortu 
nately,  he  had  a  wife  who  was  not  afraid  of  any 
kind  of  house-work.  He  purchased  his  clothes 
of  a  tailor  named  Curtis,  who  kept  a  sailors' 
clothing  store  on  North  Street,  and  his  mode 
of  living  otherwise  was  not  less  economical. 
That  his  children  suffered  by  their  father's  phi 
lanthropy  must  be  admitted,  but  it  is  a  general 
rule  that  the  families  of  public  benefactors  also 
contribute  largely  to  the  general  good.  His 
eldest  daughters  inherited  their  father's  intel 
lect,  and  as  they  grew  up  cheerfully  assisted 
him  in  various  ways. 

When  the  Mexican  war  began  there  was  great 
indignation  over  it  in  New  England,  and  Lowell 
wrote  his  most  spirited  verses  in  opposition  to 
it.  Elizur  Wright  took  advantage  of  the  storm 
to  establish  a  newspaper,  the  Chronotype,  in 
opposition  to  the  Government  policy.  He  began 
this  enterprise  almost  without  help,  but  soon 
obtained  assistance  from  leading  Free-soilers 
like  John  A.  Andrew,  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe,  and 
especially  Frank  W.  Bird,  the  most  disinter 
ested  of  politicians,  who  gave  several  thousand 
dollars  in  support  of  the  Clironotype.  The  ob 
ject  of  the  paper,  stated  in  Mr.  Wright's  own 
words,  was  "To  examine  everything  that  is 
new  and  some  things  that  are  old,  without  fear 
or  favor ;  to  promote  good  nature,  good  neigh 
borhood,  and  good  government;  to  advocate  a 


296  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

just  distribution  of  the  proper  reward,  whether 
material  or  immaterial,  both  of  honest  labor 
and  rascally  violence,  cunning  and  idleness; 
last,  but  not  least,  to  get  an  honest  living."  In 
1848  he  had  a  list  of  six  thousand  subscribers ; 
and  his  incisive  pen  was  greatly  feared.  The 
Post,  which  was  the  Government  organ  in  Bos 
ton,  attacked  him  once,  but  met  with  such  a 
crushing  rejoinder  that  its  editor  concluded  not 
to  try  that  game  again.  His  capacity  for  brain 
labor  was  wonderful.  He  could  work  fourteen 
hours  a  day,  and  did  not  seem  to  need  recrea 
tion  at  all. 

In  the  campaign  of  1844  Elizur  Wright  made 
a  number  of  speeches  for  the  Free-soil  candi 
date  in  various  New  England  cities.  One  morn 
ing  he  was  returning  from  a  celebration  at 
Nashua,  when  at  the  Lowell  station  Daniel 
Webster  entered  the  train  with  two  or  three 
friends,  and  turned  over  the  seat  next  to  Mr. 
Wright.  A  newsboy  followed  Webster,  and 
they  all  purchased  papers.  Elizur  Wright 
purchased  a  Whig  paper,  and  seeing  a  state 
ment  in  it  concerning  the  Free-soil  candidate 
which  he  believed  from  internal  evidence  to  be 
untrue,  he  said  quite  loud:  "Well!  this  is  the 
finest  roorback  I  have  met  with."  Webster 
inquired  what  it  was,  and,  after  looking  at 
the  statement,  pronounced  it  genuine.  A  short 
argument  ensued,  which  closed  with  Webster's 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  297 

proposing  to  bet  forty  pounds  that  the  allega 
tion  was  true.  "I  am  not  a  betting  man,"  re 
plied  Wright,  "but  since  the  honor  of  my  can 
didate  is  at  stake,  I  accept  your  wager. ' '  Web 
ster  then  gave  him  his  card,  and  Wright  re 
turned  it  by  writing  his  name  on  a  piece  of  the 
newspaper. 

Elizur  Wright  no  sooner  reached  his  office 
than  he  found  letters  and  documents  there 
disproving  the  Whig  statement  in  toto,  and 
later  in  the  day  he  carried  them  over  to  Mr. 
Webster,  who  had  an  office  in  what  was  then 
Niles's  Block.  Mr.  Webster  looked  carefully 
through  them,  congratulated  Mr.  Wright  on 
his  good  fortune,  and  handed  him  two  hun 
dred-dollar  bills.  Peter  Harvey,  who  was  in 
Webster's  office  at  the  time,  afterwards 
stopped  Elizur  Wright  on  the  sidewalk  and 
said  to  him:  "Mr.  Wright,  you  could  have 
afforded  to  lose  that  wager  much  better  than 
Webster  could." 

It  is  remarkable  how  all  the  different  inter 
ests  in  this  man's  life — mathematics,  philan 
thropy,  journalism,  and  the  translation  of  La 
Fontaine — united  together  like  so  many  differ 
ent  currents  to  further  the  grand  achievement 
of  his  life.  While  in  England  he  had  taken 
notice  of  the  life-insurance  companies  there, 
which  were  in  a  more  advanced  stage  than  those 
in  America.  They  interested  him  as  a  mathe- 


298  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

matical  study,  and  also  from  the  humanitarian 
point  of  view.  He  purchased  ' i  David  Jones  on 
Annuities,"  and  the  best  works  on  life  in 
surance.  These  he  read  with  the  same  ardor 
with  which  young  ladies  devour  an  exciting 
novel,  and  without  the  least  expectation  that 
they  might  ever  bring  dollars  and  cents  to  him ; 
until  one  day  in  the  spring  of  1852  an  insurance 
solicitor  placed  an  advertising  booklet  in  his 
hand  as  he  was  entering  the  office  of  the 
Chronotype. 

Elizur  Wright  looked  it  over  and  perceived 
quickly  enough  that  no  company  could  under 
take  to  do  what  this  one  pretended  to  and  re 
main  solvent.  The  booklet  served  him  for  an 
editorial,  and  before  one  o'clock  the  next  day 
agents  from  every  life  company  in  Boston  were 
collected  in  his  office.  They  supposed  at  first 
that  it  was  an  attempt  at  blackmail,  but  soon 
discovered  that  Elizur  Wright  knew  more  about 
the  subject  than  any  of  them.  Neither  threats 
nor  persuasions  had  any  effect  on  this  uncom 
promising  backwoodsman.  Only  on  one  condi 
tion  would  Mr.  Wright  retract  his  statements,— 
that  the  companies  should  reform  their  circu 
lars  and  place  their  affairs  in  a  more  sound 
condition.  The  consequence  of  this  was  an  in 
vitation  from  the  presidents  of  several  of  the 
companies  for  Mr.  Wright  to  call  at  their  offices 
and  discuss  the  subject  with  them. 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  299 

The  situation  was  this,  and  Mr.  Wright  saw 
it  clearly :  the  presidents  of  the  companies  were 
excellent  men, — as  honorable  and  trustworthy 
as  the  presidents  of  our  best  national  banks,— 
and  they  knew  how  to  organize  and  conduct 
their  companies  in  all  business  matters,  but  of 
life  insurance  as  a  science  they  knew  as  little 
as  they  knew  of  Greek.  In  those  days  there  was 
a  prejudice  against  college  graduates  which 
prevented  their  obtaining  the  highest  mercan 
tile  positions,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  there  was 
any  person  connected  with  the  life-insurance 
companies  who  could  solve  a  problem  in  the 
higher  mathematics.  The  consequence  of  this 
was  that  it  placed  the  presidents  quite  at  the 
mercy  of  their  own  accountants.  Recent  events 
have  proved  with  what  facility  the  teller  of  a 
bank  can  abstract  twenty  or  thirty  thousand 
dollars  without  its  appearing  in  the  accounts. 
Temptations  and  opportunities  of  this  sort  must 
have  been  much  greater  in  life-insurance  com 
panies,  as  they  were  formerly  conducted,  than 
it  is  now  in  banks.  Money  may  have  been  stolen 
without  its  having  been  discovered. 

Besides  this,  the  temptations  of  the  companies 
to  continually  over-bid  one  another  for  public 
favor  was  another  evil  which,  sooner  or  later, 
would  lead  some  of  them  into  bankruptcy.  This 
danger  could  only  be  averted  by  placing  their 
rates  of  insurance  on  a  scientific  basis,  which 


300  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

should  be  the  same  and  unalterable  for  all  com 
panies. 

The  charters  of  the  companies  had  been 
drafted  in  the  interest  of  the  management, 
without  much  consideration  for  the  rights  or 
advantages  of  those  who  were  insured.  There 
were  no  laws  on  the  statute  book  which  would 
practically  prevent  directors  of  life-insurance 
companies  from  doing  as  they  pleased  with 
the  immense  trust  properties  in  their  posses 
sion. 

After  two  or  three  interviews  with  Elizur 
Wright  the  presidents  of  the  companies  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  he  was  exactly  the  man 
that  they  wanted,  and  they  commissioned  him 
to  draw  up  a  revised  set  of  tables  and  rates 
which  could  serve  them  for  a  uniform  standard. 
This  work  occupied  him  and  two  of  his  daugh 
ters  for  a  full  year,  for  which  he  was  compen 
sated  with  the  paltry  sum  of  two  thousand  dol 
lars.  The  time  was  fast  approaching,  however, 
when  Elizur  Wright  would  be  in  a  position  to 
dictate  his  own  terms  to  the  insurance  com 
panies. 

It  was  now  that  the  Bird  Club,  the  most  dis 
tinguished  political  club  of  its  time,  became 
gradually  formed  out  of  the  leading  elements 
of  the  Free-soil  party.  At  one  time  this  club 
counted  among  its  members  two  Senators,  three 
Governors,  and  a  number  of  Congressmen,  and 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  301 

it  was  a  power  in  the  land.  Elizur  Wright's 
services  as  editor  of  the  Chronotype  gave  him 
an  early  entrance  to  it;  and  having  life  in 
surance  on  the  brain,  as  it  were,  other  members 
of  the  club  soon  became  interested  in  the  sub 
ject  as  a  political  question.  In  this  way  Mr. 
Wright  was  soon  able  to  effect  legislation. 
Sumner,  Wilson,  Andrew,  and  Bird  gave  him 
an  almost  unqualified  support.  In  1858  he  was 
appointed  Insurance  Commissioner  for  Massa 
chusetts,  a  position  which  he  held  until  1866. 
As  Commissioner  he  formulated  the  principal 
legislation  on  life  insurance;  and  his  reports, 
which  have  been  published  in  a  volume,  are  the 
best  treatise  in  English  on  the  practical  appli 
cation  of  life-insurance  principles. 

In  1852  he  resigned  the  editorship  of  the 
Chronotype,  and  from  that  time  till  1858  he  was 
occupied  with  life-insurance  work,  the  editing 
of  a  paper  called  the  Railroad  Times,  and 
making  a  number  of  mechanical  inventions, 
most  important  of  which  was  a  calculating 
machine,  enough  in  itself  to  give  a  man  dis 
tinction. 

This  machine  was  simply  a  Gunther  rule 
thirty  feet  in  length  wrapped  on  a  cylinder  and 
turned  by  a  crank.  Gunther 's  rule  is  a  measure 
on  which  logarithms  are  represented  by  spaces, 
so  that  by  adding  and  subtracting  spaces  on  this 
cylinder  Mr.  Wright  could  perform  the  longest 


302  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

sums  in  multiplication  and  division  in  two  or 
three  minutes  of  time. 

Not  only  did  the  Massachusetts  insurance 
companies  come  under  Mr.  Wright's  surveil 
lance,  but  the  New  York  Life,  the  Connecticut 
Mutual,  and  the  Mutual  Benefit  of  New  Jersey, 
all  large  and  powerful  companies,  were  obliged 
to  conform  to  his  regulations,  for  their  Boston 
offices  were  too  lucrative  to  be  surrendered. 
About  this  time  Gladstone  caused  an  overhaul 
ing  of  the  English  life-insurance  companies, 
and  a  number  which  proved  to  be  unsound  were 
obliged  to  surrender  their  charters.  Among 
these  latter  were  two  companies  which  held 
offices  in  Boston,  and  whose  character  had 
already  been  exposed  by  Elizur  Wright. 

In  1850,  when  he  became  Commissioner,  Mr. 
Wright  sent  to  their  agents  for  a  statement  of 
their  financial  standing,  and  not  receiving  a 
reply  requested  them  to  leave  the  State.  Find 
ing  that  the  matter  could  not  be  evaded,  they  at 
length  forwarded  two  reports  signed  by  two 
actuaries,  both  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Society, 
which  were  not  of  a  satisfactory  character,  so 
that  Mr.  Wright  insisted  on  his  previous  order. 
The  agents  then  applied  for  support  to  Prof. 
Benjamin  Pierce,  the  distinguished  mathema 
tician  of  Harvard  University,  and  one  of  the 
most  aggressively  pro-slavery  men  about  Bos 
ton.  He  probably  looked  upon  Elizur  Wright 


ELIZTJR   WRIGHT  303 

as  a  vulgar  fanatic,  and  supposing  that  a  Fellow 
of  the  Royal  Society  must  necessarily  be  an 
honorable  man,  came  forward  in  support  of 
Messrs.  Neisen  and  Woolhouse  without  suffi 
ciently  investigating  the  question  at  issue ;  and 
the  result  was  a  controversy  between  Elizur 
"Wright  and  himself  in  which  he  was  finally 
beaten  off  the  field. 

The  statements  of  both  Neisen  and  Wool- 
house  was  proved  to  be  fraudulent,  and  the 
two  English  companies  were  expelled  from  the 
State. 

Mr.  Wright's  insurance  reports  brought  him 
such  celebrity  that  all  the  companies  wished  to 
have  his  name  connected  with  them.  His  son, 
Walter  C.  Wright,  became  actuary  of  the  New 
England  Life,  and  his  daughter,  Miss  Jane 
Wright,  was  made  actuary  of  the  Mutual  Union 
Company.  Mr.  Wright  and  his  eldest  son,  John, 
set  up  a  business  for  calculating  the  value  of 
insurance  policies,  in  which  the  logarithm 
machine  helped  them  to  obtain  a  large  income. 
With  his  first  ten  thousand  dollars  Mr.  Wright 
purchased  a  large  house  and  a  tract  of  land  in 
Middlesex  Fells,  where  his  family  still  resides. 

In  1865  the  office  of  Life  Insurance  Commis 
sioner  was  filched  from  him  by  a  trade  politician 
who  knew  as  much  of  the  subject  as  fresh  college 
graduates  do  of  the  practical  affairs  of  life. 
Mr.  Wright  always  regretted  this,  for  he  felt 


304  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

that  his  work  was  not  yet  complete ;  and  it  is  a 
fact  that  American  life  insurance,  with  its  good 
and  bad  features,  still  remains  almost  exactly 
as  he  left  it. 

It  was  only  after  Elizur  Wright  had  ceased 
to  be  Commissioner  that  he  discovered  a  serious 
error  in  the  calculation  of  the  companies,  which 
may  be  explained  in  the  following  manner : 

In  the  beginning,  nearly  all  the  insurance 
policies  were  made  payable  at  death,  with  an 
nual  premiums ;  but  the  introduction  of  endow 
ment  policies,  payable  at  a  certain  age,  effected 
a  peculiar  change  in  their  affairs,  of  which 
the  managers  of  the  companies  were  not  sen 
sible.  Elizur  Wright  perceived  that  there  were 
two  distinct  elements  in  the  endowment  policies 
which  placed  them  at  a  disadvatage  with  ordi- 
ary  life  policies,  and  he  called  this  combination 
' i  savings-bank  life  insurance. ' '  An  endowment 
policy,  being  payable  at  a  fixed  date,  required  a 
larger  premium  than  one  which  ran  on  indefi 
nitely  and  by  customary  usage,  and  the  agent 
who  negotiated  the  policy  received  the  same 
percentage  for  commission  that  he  would  on  an 
ordinary-life  policy;  that  is,  he  received  a 
much  larger  commission  in  proportion.  This 
evil  was  increased  in  cases  where  endowment 
policies  were  paid  for,  as  often  happened,  in 
five  or  ten  instalments ;  and  where  they  were 
paid  for  in  a  single  instalment  the  agent  re- 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  305 

ceived  four  or  five  times  what  he  was  properly 
entitled  to. 

The  same  principle  was  observed  by  the  com 
panies  in  the  distribution  of  their  surplus,  so 
that  the  holders  of  endowment  policies  were 
practically  mulcted  at  both  ends  of  the  line. 

In  his  reports  as  Insurance  Commissioner 
Elizur  Wright  had  recommended  this  class  of 
policies  as  a  salutary  provision  against  poverty 
in  old  age,  and  he  felt  under  obligations  to  the 
public  to  correct  this  injustice,*  but  the  in 
surance  agents  had  also  advocated  them  for 
evident  reasons  and  were  naturally  opposed  to 
any  project  of  reform.  The  managers  of  the 
companies  also  treated  the  subject  coldly,  for 
the  discrimination  against  endowments  enabled 
them  to  accumulate  a  larger  reserve  which  made 
them  appear  to  better  advantage  before  the 
general  public.  The  numerous  agents  and 
solicitors  formed  a  solid  body  of  opposition  and 
raised  a  chorus  against  Elizur  Wright  like  that 
which  the  robins  make  when  you  pick  your  own 
cherries.  This  class  of  persons  when  they  are 
actuated  by  a  common  impulse  make  a  formid 
able  impression. 

Mr.  Wright,  after  arguing  his  case  with  the 
insurance  companies  for  nearly  a  year  without 


*  On  a  policy  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  it  would  amount 
to  an  appreciable  sum. 

20 


306  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

effect,  appealed  to  the  public  through  the  news 
papers.  This,  however,  had  unexpected  conse 
quences.  Mr.  Wright's  letters  produced  the 
impression,  which  he  did  not  intend  at  all,  that 
the  insurance  companies  were  unsound,  and 
policy-holders  rushed  to  the  offices  to  make  in 
quiries.  Many  surrendered  their  policies. 

In  this  emergency  the  officers  of  the  com 
panies  went  to  the  editors  and  explained  to 
them  that  their  business  would  be  ruined  if  Mr. 
Wright  was  permitted  to  continue  his  attacks 
on  them.  They  then  made  Mr.  Wright  what 
may  have  been  intended  for  a  magnanimous 
offer,  though  he  did  not  look  on  it  in  that  light,— 
namely,  an  offer  of  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
if  he  would  retire  from  the  actuary  business 
and  not  molest  them  any  longer.* 

Elizur  Wright  refused  this,  as  he  might  have 
declined  the  offer  of  a  cigar,  and  appealed  to 
the  Legislature.  The  companies  then  withdrew 
their  business  from  Mr.  Wright  and  thus  re 
duced  his  income  from  twelve  thousand  dollars 
a  year  to  about  three  thousand;  but  this  trou 
bled  him  no  more  than  it  would  have  Diogenes. 

In  the  summer  of  1872  a  portly  gentleman 
called  at  Elizur  Wright's  office  on  State  Street 

*  These  events  took  place  thirty  years  ago  and  have  no 
relation  to  the  present  condition  and  practice  of  American 
insurance  companies. 


ELIZUR   WRIGHT  307 

and  introduced  himself  as  the  president  of  a 
well-known  Western  insurance  company.  As 
it  was  a  pleasant  day  Mr.  Wright  invited  his 
visitor  to  Pine  Hill,  where  they  could  converse 
to  better  advantage  than  in  a  Boston  office ;  but 
being  much  absorbed  in  his  subject,  while  pass 
ing  through  Medford  Centre,  he  neglected  to 
order  a  dinner;  and  the  consequence  of  this 
was  that  his  portly  friend  was  obliged  to  make 
a  lunch  on  cold  meat  and  potato  salad.  That 
same  evening  Mr.  Wright's  daughter  twitted 
him  on  his  lack  of  forethought,  and  hoped  such 
a  thing  would  not  happen  again,  to  which  he 
only  replied:  "The  kindest  thing  you  can  do 
for  such  a  man  is  to  starve  him. ' '  Such  was  his 
philosophy  on  all  occasions. 

He  devised  a  plan  for  combining  life  in 
surance  with  a  savings  bank,  by  which  the  labor 
ing  man  could  obtain  a  certain  amount  of  in 
surance  for  his  family  (or  old  age)  instead  of 
interest  upon  his  deposits.  This  was  an  admir 
able  idea,  and  if  he  had  undertaken  to  carry  it 
out  in  the  prime  of  life  he  might  have  succeeded 
in  realizing  it;  but  he  was  now  upwards  of 
seventy,  and  his  friends  concluded  that  the  ex 
periment  would  be  a  risky  one,  as  a  favorable 
result  would  depend  entirely  on  Mr.  Wright's 
longevity.  At  the  same  time  he  had  another 
enterprise  in  hand,  namely,  to  convert  the 
Middlesex  Fells,  in  which  Pine  Hill  is  situated, 


308  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

into  a  public  park.  This  was  greatly  needed  for 
the  crowded  population  on  the  northern  side  of 
Boston,  and  though  the  plan  was  not  carried  out 
until  after  his  death,  he  was  the  originator  and 
earliest  promoter  of  it. 

Elizur  Wright's  most  conspicuous  trait  was 
generosity.  He  lived  for  the  world  and  not  for 
himself.  He  was  a  man  of  broad  views  and 
great  designs;  a  daring,  original  thinker.  He 
respected  Emerson,  but  preferred  the  philoso 
phy  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  from  the  study  of 
which  he  became  an  advocate  of  free  trade  and 
woman  suffrage. 

He  died  November  21,  1885,  in  the  midst  of  a 
rain-storm  which  lasted  six  days  and  nights. 
He  lies  interred  at  Mt.  Hope  Cemetery. 


DE.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON 

A  DISTINGUISHED  American  called  upon 
Charles  Darwin,  and  in  the  course  of  conver 
sation  asked  him  what  he  considered  the  most 
important  discovery  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
To  which  Mr.  Darwin  replied,  after  a  slight 
hesitation:  "Painless  surgery."  He  thought 
this  more  beneficial  in  its  effects  on  human 
affairs  than  either  the  steam-engine  or  the  tele 
graph.  Let  it  also  be  noted  that  he  spoke  of  it 
as  an  invention,  rather  than  as  a  discovery. 

The  person  to  whom  all  scientific  men  now 
attribute  the  honor  of  this  discovery,  or  inven 
tion,  is  Dr.  William  T.  G.  Morton;  and, 
although  in  that  matter  he  was  not  without 
slight  assistance  from  others,  as  well  as  prede 
cessors  in  the  way  of  tentative  experiments, 
yet  it  was  Doctor  Morton  who  first  proved  the 
possibility  of  applying  anaesthesia  to  surgical 
operations  of  a  capital  order;  and  it  was  he 
who  pushed  his  theory  to  a  practical  success.  It 
may  also  be  admitted  that  Columbus  could  not 
have  discovered  the  Western  Hemisphere  with 
out  the  assistance  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella; 
but  it  was  Columbus  who  divined  the  existence 
of  the  American  continent,  and  afterwards 
proved  his  theory  to  be  true.  There  is  an  under- 

309 


310  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

lying  similarity  between  the  labors  and  lives  of 
Columbus  and  Morton,  in  spite  of  large  super 
ficial  differences. 

William  Thomas  Greene  Morton  was  born 
August  19,  1819,  in  Charlton,  Massachusetts,  a 
small  town  in  the  Connecticut  Valley.  His 
father  was  a  flourishing  farmer  and  lived  in  an 
old-fashioned  but  commodious  country  house, 
with  a  large  square  chimney  in  the  centre  of  it. 
William  was  not  only  a  bright  but  a  very  dex 
terous  boy,  and  was  sent  to  school  in  the  acad 
emy  at  Northfield,  and  afterwards  at  Leicester. 
It  is  a  family  tradition  that  he  early  showed  an 
experimental  tendency  by  brewing  concoctions 
of  various  kinds  for  the  benefit  of  his  young 
companions,  and  that  he  once  made  his  sister 
deathly  sick  in  this  manner.  His  father,  finding 
him  a  more  energetic  boy  than  the  average  of 
farmers'  sons,  advised  him  to  go  to  Boston,  to 
seek  whatever  fortune  he  could  find  there. 

This  resulted  in  his  obtaining  employment, 
probably  through  the  Charlton  clergyman,  in 
the  office  of  a  religious  periodical,  the  Christian 
Witness;  but  the  situation,  though  a  comfort 
able  one,  was  not  adapted  to  his  tastes,  and 
from  some  unexplained  attraction  to  the  pro 
fession,  he  decided  to  study  dentistry.  This  he 
accordingly  did,  graduating  at  the  Baltimore 
Dental  College  in  1842.  He  then  engaged  an 
office  in  Boston,  and  soon  acquired  a  lucrative 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  311 

practice.  He  was  an  uncommonly  handsome 
man,  with  a  determined  look  in  his  eye,  but  also 
a  kindly  expression  and  pleasing  manners, 
which  may  have  brought  him  more  practice  than 
his  skill  in  dentistry, — although  that  was  also 
good. 

The  following  year  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Elizabeth  Whitman,  of  Farmington,  Connecti 
cut,  whose  uncle,  at  least,  had  been  a  member 
of  Congress, — a  highly  genteel  family  in  that 
region.  In  fact,  her  parents  objected  to  Doctor 
Morton  on  account  of  his  profession,  and  it  was 
only  after  his  promise  to  study  medicine  and 
become  a  regular  practitioner  that  they  con 
sented  to  the  match.  Accordingly,  Doctor  Mor 
ton  in  the  autumn  of  1844  commenced  a  course 
at  the  Harvard  Medical-School. 

Mrs.  Morton  was  a  handsome  young  woman, 
with  a  fair  face  and  elegant  figure.  It  would 
have  been  difficult  to  find  a  better  looking  couple 
anywhere  in  the  suburbs,  and  with  good  health 
and  strength  it  seemed  as  if  fortune  would  cer 
tainly  smile  on  them.  Doctor  Morton  built  a 
summer  cottage  at  Wellesley,  where  the  public 
library  now  stands,  and  planted  a  grove  of  trees 
about  it ;  but  a  mere  earthly  paradise  could  not 
satisfy  him.  He  was  not  an  ambitious  man,  or 
he  would  not  have  chosen  the  dental  profession; 
but  the  food  he  lived  on  was  not  of  this  world. 
He  had  the  daring  spirit,  the  speculative  tern- 


312  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

perament,  and  restless  energy  of  the  born  dis 
coverer.  Already  he  had  made  improvements 
in  the  manufacture  of  artificial  teeth.  He  was 
the  first,  or  one  of  the  first,  to  recognize  the 
importance  of  chemistry  in  connection  with  the 
practice  of  medicine.  He  had  no  sooner  re 
turned  to  Boston  than  he  commenced  the  study 
of  chemistry  with  Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson, 
spending  from  six  to  ten  hours  a  week  in  his 
laboratory;  and  he  thus  became  acquainted 
with  the  properties  and  peculiarities  of  most  of 
the  chemical  ingredients  known  at  that  time. 

Mrs.  Morton  soon  discovered  with  awe  and 
trepidation  that  she  had  married  no  ordinary 
man.  That  he  had  a  real  skeleton  in  his  closet 
was  to  have  been  expected;  but,  besides  this, 
there  were  rows  of  mysterious-looking  bottles, 
with  substances  in  them  quite  different  from 
the  medicines  which  were  prescribed  by  the  doc 
tors  in  Farmington.  He  tried  experiments  on 
their  black  water-spaniel  and  nearly  killed  him ; 
and  even  descended  to  fishes  and  insects.  He 
would  muse  for  hours  by  himself,  and  if  she 
asked  him  what  he  was  thinking  of  he  gave  her 
no  explanation  that  she  could  understand. 
Although  he  was  so  attractive  and  pleasing,  he 
did  not  care  much  for  human  society.*  He  was 
kind  and  good  to  her,  and  with  that  she  was 

*  McClure's  Magazine,  September,  1896. 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  313 

content.  A  more  devoted  wife,  or  faithful 
mother,  has  not  been  portrayed  in  poetry  or 
romance. 

These  phenomena  in  Doctor  Morton's  early 
life  remind  one  of  certain  processes  in  the  bud 
ding  of  a  flower.  They  indicate  a  tendency  to 
some  object  which  perhaps  was  not  at  the  time 
wholly  clear  to  the  man  himself.  Impelled  by 
the  humanitarian  spirit  of  the  age,  he  moved 
forward  with  a  clear  eye  and  firm  hand  to  grasp 
the  opportunity  when  it  arrived, — nor  was  it 
long  delayed. 

In  considering  the  discovery  of  etherization 
we  ought  to  eliminate  all  evidence  of  an  ex  parte 
character,  unless  it  is  supported  circumstan 
tially;  but  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should 
disbelieve  Mrs.  Morton's  statement  that  her 
husband  made  experiments  with  sulphuric 
ether ;  that  his  clothes  smelt  of  it ;  and  that  he 
tried  to  persuade  laboring-men  to  allow  him  to 
experiment  upon  them  with  it.  As  Dr.  J.  Col 
lins  Warren  says:  *  "Anaesthesia  had  been  the 
dream  of  many  surgeons  and  scientists,  but  it 
had  been  classed  with  aerial  navigation  and 
other  improbable  inventions. "  As  long  ago  as 
1818  Faraday  had  discovered  the  chief  prop 
erties  of  ether,  with  the  exception  of  its  effect 
in  deadening  sensibility.  In  1836  Dr.  Mor- 

*  Anaesthesia  in  Surgery,  15. 


314  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

rill  Wyman  and  Dr.  Samuel  Parkman  had  ex 
perimented  with  it  on  themselves  at  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Hospital,  but  without  taking  a  suffi 
cient  quantity  to  produce  unconsciousness.  It 
was  actually  employed  in  1842  by  Dr.  Craw 
ford  W.  Long,  at  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
sylvania,  in  some  minor  cases  of  surgery,  but 
he  would  seem  to  have  lost  confidence  in  his 
method  and  afterwards  abandoned  it. 

In  December,  1844,  Horace  Wells,  a  dentist 
of  Hartford,  had  a  tooth  extracted  by  his  own 
request  while  under  the  influence  of  nitrous 
oxide ;  and  the  following  month  he  came  to  Bos 
ton,  and  having  made  his  discovery  known,  an 
operation  at  the  hospital  was  undertaken  with 
his  assistance,  but  the  patient  screamed,  and  it 
proved  a  failure  so  far  as  anaesthesia  was  con 
cerned. 

From  these  facts  we  readily  draw  the  follow 
ing  conclusions :  That  the  discovery  of  painless 
surgery  was  essentially  a  practical  affair  for 
which  only  a  slight  knowledge  of  chemistry  was 
required;  that  it  was  not  a  discovery  made  at 
hap-hazard,  but  one  that  necessitated  a  skilful 
hand  and  a  clear  understanding  of  the  subject ; 
and  that  the  supposition  which  has  sometimes 
been  advanced  that  Doctor  Morton  was  neces 
sarily  indebted  to  Doctor  Jackson  for  a  knowl 
edge  of  the  hypnotic  effect  of  ether  is  wholly 
gratuitous. 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  315 

We  will  now  quote  directly  from  Doctor  War 
ren's  lecture  on  "The  Influence  of  Anaesthesia 
on  the  Surgery  of  the  Nineteenth  Century/7  de 
livered  before  the  American  Surgical  Associa 
tion  in  1897 : 

"  Morton  having  acquainted  himself  by  conversation  with 
Mr.  Metcalf  and  Mr.  Burnett,  both  leading  druggists,  as  to 
purity  and  qualities  of  ether,  and  having  also  conversed 
with  Mr.  Wightman,  a  philosophical  instrument-maker,  and 
with  Doctor  Jackson  as  to  inhaling  apparatus,  proceeded 
to  experiment  upon  himself.  After  inhaling  the  purer 
quality  of  ether  from  a  handkerchief  he  awoke  to  find  that 
he  had  been  insensible  for  seven  or  eight  minutes. 

"  The  same  day  a  stout,  healthy  man  came  to  his  office 
suffering  from  great  pain  and  desiring  to  have  a  tooth 
extracted.  Dreading  the  pain,  he  accepted  willingly  Mor 
ton's  proposal  to  use  ether,  and  the  tooth  was  extracted 
without  suffering.  Morton  reported  his  success  the  next 
day  to  Jackson,  and  conversed  with  him  as  to  the  best 
methods  of  bringing  his  discovery  to  the  attention  of  the 
medical  profession  and  the  public.  Jackson  pointed  out 
that  tooth-pulling  was  not  a  sufficient  test,  as  many  people 
claimed  to  have  teeth  pulled  without  pain.  It  was  finally 
decided  that  the  crucial  test  lay  in  a  public  demonstration 
in  the  operating  theatre  of  a  hospital  in  a  surgical  case." 

There  is  one  statement  in  the  above  to  which, 
according  to  our  rules  of  literary  procedure, 
we  feel  obliged  to  take  exception, — that  is,  the 
statement  concerning  the  interview  between 
Morton  and  Jackson  after  the  successful  ad 
ministration  of  ether  to  Morton's  patient.  It 


316  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

is  substantially  Doctor  Jackson's  own  state 
ment.  Doctor  Morton  gave  a  wholly  different 
account  before  the  Congressional  Committee  of 
1852.  He  said: 

"I  went  to  Doctor  Jackson,  told  him  what  I  had  done, 
and  asked  him  to  give  me  a  certificate  that  ether  was  harm 
less  in  its  effects.  This  he  positively  refused  to  do.  I  then 
told  him  I  should  go  to  the  principal  surgeons  and  have  the 
question  thoroughly  tried.  I  then  called  on  Doctor  Warren, 
who  promised  me  an  early  opportunity  to  try  the  experi 
ment,  and  soon  after  I  received  the  invitation.  .  .  ." 

Now  as  these  are  both  ex  parte  statements, 
and  as  there  are  no  witnesses  on  either  side, 
according  to  the  rule  we  have  already  estab 
lished,  they  will  both  have  to  be  eliminated.* 
Doctor  Morton,  however,  says  previously  that 
it  was  Doctor  Hayward  with  whom  he  consulted 
as  to  the  best  method  of  bringing  his  discovery 
before  the  world. 

In  the  consideration  of  this  subject  we  come 
upon  a  man  of  rare  character — rare  even  in  his 
profession.  Dr.  John  C.  Warren  was  the  per 
fect  type  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  surgeon.  His 
courage  and  dexterity  were  fully  equalled  by 
his  kindness  and  sympathy  for  the  patient. 
Cool  and  collected  in  the  most  trying  emer 
gencies,  it  has  been  said  of  him  that  he  never 
performed  a  capital  operation  without  feeling  a 

*  The  Congressional  Committee  of  1852  did  not  find  Doc 
tor  Jackson's  report  of  this  interview  trustworthy. 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  317 

pain  in  his  heart ;  and  the  evidence  of  this  was 
marked  upon  his  face,  so  that  it  is  even  visible 
in  the  photographs  of  him.  He  deserved  to 
have  his  portrait  painted  by  Rubens.  In  1847 
Dr.  Mason  Warren  published  a  review  of 
etherization,  in  which  he  makes  this  important 
statement : 

"  In  the  autumn  of  1846  Dr.  W.  T.  G.  Morton,  a  dentist 
in  Boston,  a  person  of  great  ingenuity,  patience,  and  perti 
nacity  of  purpose,  called  on  me  several  times  to  show  some 
of  his  inventions.  At  that  time  I  introduced  him  to  Dr. 
John  C.  Warren.  Shortly  after,  in  October,  I  learned  from 
Doctor  Warren  that  Doctor  Morton  had  visited  him  and 
informed  him  that  he  was  in  possession  of  or  had  discovered 
a  means  of  preventing  pain,  which  he  had  proved  in  dental 
operations,  and  wished  Doctor  Warren  to  give  him  an 
opportunity  in  a  surgical  operation.  After  some  questions 
on  the  subject  in  regard  to  its  action  and  the  safety  of  it, 
Doctor  Warren  promised  that  he  would  do  so.  ...  The 
operation  was  therefore  deferred  until  Friday,  October  16, 
when  the  ether  was  administered  by  Doctor  Morton,  and 
the  operation  performed  by  Doctor  Warren." 

It  was  eminently  fitting  that  Dr.  John  C.  War 
ren  should  be  the  one  to  introduce  painless  sur 
gery  to  the  medical  profession.  Next  to  Mor 
ton  he  deserves  the  highest  credit  for  the 
revolution  which  it  effected :  a  glorious  revolu 
tion,  fully  equal  to  that  of  1688.  His  quick 
recognition  of  Morton's  character,  and  the  con 
fidence  he  placed  in  him  as  the  man  of  the  hour, 
deserve  the  highest  commendation.  Doctor 


318  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Warren  had  invited  Doctor  Jackson  to  attend 
this  critical  experiment  with  sulphuric  ether  at 
the  Massachusetts  Hospital;  but  he  declined 
with  the  trite  excuse  that  he  was  obliged  to  go 
out  of  town.  This  has  been  generally  inter 
preted  by  the  medical  profession  as  a  lack  of 
courage  on  Jackson's  part  to  face  the  music, 
but  it  may  also  have  been  owing  to  his  jealousy 
of  Morton. 

This  happened  October  16th,  and  on  Novem 
ber  13th,  Dr.  C.  T.  Jackson  wrote  to  M.  Elie  de 
Beaumont,  a  member  of  the  French  Academy, 
this  remarkable  letter: 

"  I  request  permission  to  communicate  through  your 
medium  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences  a  discovery  which  I 
have  made,  and  which  I  believe  important  for  the  relief  of 
suffering  humanity,  as  well  as  of  great  value  to  the  surgical 
profession.  Five  or  six  years  ago  I  noticed  the  peculiar 
state  of  insensibility  into  which  the  nervous  system  is 
thrown  by  the  inhalation  of  the  vapor  of  pure  sulphuric 
ether,  which  I  respired  abundantly, — first  by  way  of  experi 
ments,  and  afterwards  when  I  had  a  severe  catarrh,  caused 
by  the  inhalation  of  chlorine  gas.  I  have  latterly  made  a 
useful  application  of  this  fact  by  persuading  a  dentist  of 
this  city  to  administer  the  vapor  of  ether  to  his  patients, 
when  about  to  undergo  the  operation  of  extraction  of  teeth. 
It  was  observed  that  persons  suffered  no  pain  in  the  opera 
tion,  and  that  no  inconvenience  resulted  from  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  vapor." 

It  was  the  opinion  of  Robert  Eantoul  and 
other  members  of  the  Congressional  Committee 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  319 

that  Doctor  Jackson  suffered  from  a  "heated 
and  disordered  imagination,"  and  that  is  the 
most  charitable  view  that  one  can  take  of  such 
a  letter  as  this.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
result  of  Doctor  Jackson's  investigations  with 
sulphuric  ether,  it  is  certain  that  he  added 
nothing  to  the  scientific  knowledge  of  his  time 
in  that  respect ;  *  and  if  he  persuaded  Doctor 
Morton  to  make  use  of  it,  why  was  he  not  pres 
ent  to  oversee  his  subordinate  ?  also,  why  did  he 
make  a  charge  on  his  books  a  few  days  later 
against  Doctor  Morton  of  five  hundred  dollars 
for  advice  and  information  concerning  the  ap 
plication  of  ether?  It  is  not  customary  to 
charge  subordinates  for  their  service  but  to 
reward  them.  The  two  horns  of  this  dilemma 
are  sharp  and  penetrating. 

In  a  later  memorial  of  the  same  general  tenor, 
which  Doctor  Jackson  forwarded  to  Baron 
Humboldt,  he  stated  that  he  had  applied  to  other 
dentists  in  Boston  to  make  the  experiment  of 
etherization,  but  found  them  unwilling  to  take 
the  risk;  but  the  names  of  the  dentists  have 
never  been  made  public,  nor  did  any  such 
appear  afterwards  to  testify  in  Doctor  Jack 
son's  behalf. 

Still  more  remarkable  was  the  action  of  the 
French  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  in  these 

*  Edinburgh  Medical  Journal,  April  1,  1857. 


320  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

premises.  The  French  Academy  was  founded 
by  Richelieu,  but  abolished  in  the  first  French 
Revolution,  with  so  many  other  enchanted  phan 
tasms.  Napoleon  re-established  it,  and  gave  it 
new  life  and  vigor  by  a  discriminating  choice  of 
membership ;  but  it  is  a  close  corporation  which 
renews  itself  by  its  own  votes,  and  such  a  body 
of  men  is  always  in  danger  of  becoming  a 
mutual  admiration  society,  and  if  this  happens 
its  public  utility  is  at  an  end.  In  the  present 
instance  the  action  of  the  French  Academy  was 
illogical,  unscientific,  and  mischievous. 

Doctor  Jackson's  letter  was  brought  before 
that  august  body  on  January  18,  1847,  but  pre 
vious  to  that  time  Doctor  Warren  had  written 
to  Doctor  Velpeau,  an  eminent  French  surgeon, 
concerning  the  success  of  etherization  at  the 
Massachusetts  Hospital,  and  suggesting  the  use 
of  it  in  the  hospitals  at  Paris ;  and  Doctor  Vel 
peau  referred  to  this  fact  at  the  meeting  of 
January  18th.  The  contents  of  this  letter  have 
never  been  made  public ;  but  it  is  incredible  that 
Doctor  Jackson's  claim  should  have  received 
any  support  from  it.  Nevertheless,  the  mem 
bers  of  the  French  Academy  decided  to  divide 
one  of  the  Mouthy  on  prizes  (of  five  thousand 
francs  for  great  scientific  discoveries)  between 
Dr.  W.  T.  G.  Morton  and  Elie  de  Beaumont's 
American  friend,  Dr.  C.  T.  Jackson;  and  they 
conferred  this  particular  favor  on  Dr.  Jackson 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  321 

at  his  own  representation,  without  one  witness 
in  his  favor,  and  without  making  an  inquiry 
into  the  circumstances  of  the  discovery.  Could 
the  Northfield  Academy  of  boys  and  girls  have 
acted  in  a  more  heedless  or  unscientific  manner? 

After  the  justice  of  this  decision  had  been 
questioned,  the  French  Academy  promulgated 
a  defence  of  their  previous  action,  of  which  the 
essence  was  that  the  scientific  theory  of  Doctor 
Jackson  was  as  essential  to  the  discovery  of 
etherization  as  the  practical  skill  of  Doctor 
Morton;  that  is,  they  attempted  to  decide  a 
matter  of  fact  by  an  a  priori  dogmatism.  Was 
not  the  instruction  that  Doctor  Morton  received 
from  the  dental  college  in  Baltimore  also  essen 
tial  to  the  discovery, — and  to  go  behind  that,— 
what  he  learned  at  the  primary  school  at  Charl- 
ton  ?  When  learning  is  divorced  from  reason  it 
becomes  mere  pedantry  or  sublimated  igno 
rance,  and  is  more  dangerous  to  the  community 
than  unlettered  ignorance  can  be. 

This  blunder  of  the  French  Academy  had  evil 
consequences  for  both  Morton  and  Jackson ;  for 
it  placed  the  latter  in  a  false  position  towards 
the  world,  and  brought  about  a  collision  be 
tween  them  which  not  only  lasted  during  their 
lives,  but  was  also  carried  on  by  their  friends 
and  relatives  long  afterwards.  It  is  doubtful 
if  Jackson  would  have  contested  Morton's 

claim  without  European  support. 

21 


322  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

With  true  dignity  of  character  Doctor  Morton 
declined  to  divide  the  Mouthyon  prize  with 
Doctor  Jackson,  and  the  French  Academy  ac 
cordingly  had  a  large  gold  medal  stamped  in  his 
honor,  and  as  this  did  not  exhaust  the  original 
donation,  the  remainder  of  the  sum  was  ex 
pended  on  a  highly  ornamental  case.  The  trus 
tees  of  the  Massachusetts  Hospital  partly  sub 
scribed  and  partly  collected  a  thousand  dollars 
which  they  presented  to  Doctor  Morton  in  a 
handsome  silver  casket.  The  King  of  Sweden 
sent  him  the  Cross  of  the  Order  of  Wasa ;  and 
he  also  received  the  Cross  of  the  Order  of  St. 
Vladimir  from  the  Tsar  of  Russia.  He  was 
only  twenty-seven  years  of  age  at  this  time. 

The  ensuing  eight  years  of  Morton's  life  were 
spent  in  a  desperate  effort  for  recognition- 
recognition  of  the  importance  of  his  discovery 
and  of  his  own  merits  as  the  discoverer.  No 
one  can  blame  him  for  this.  As  events  proved, 
it  would  have  been  far  better  for  him  if  he  had 
finished  his  course  at  the  medical-school  and  set 
up  his  sign  in  the  vicinity  of  Beacon  Street; 
but  the  wisest  man  can  but  dimly  foresee  the 
future.  Doctor  Morton  had  every  reason  to 
believe  that  there  was  a  fortune  to  be  made  in 
etherization.  He  consulted  Eufus  Choate,  who 
advised  him  to  obtain  a  patent  or  proprietary 
right  in  his  discovery.  Hon.  Caleb  Eddy  under- 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  323 

took  to  do  this  for  him,  and  being  supported  by 
a  sound  opinion  from  Daniel  Webster,  easily 
obtained  it.  Now,  however,  Morton's  troubles 
began. 

He  exempted  the  Massachusetts  Hospital 
from  the  application  of  his  royalty,  and  it  was 
only  right  that  he  should  do  so;  but,  unfortu 
nately,  it  was  the  only  large  hospital  where 
etherization  was  regularly  practised.  In  order 
to  extend  its  application  Doctor  Morton  secured 
the  services  of  three  young  physicians,  prac 
tised  them  in  the  use  of  the  gas,  and  paid  them 
a  thousand  dollars  each  to  go  forth  into  the 
world  as  proselytes  of  his  discovery;  but  they 
met  everywhere  with  a  cold  reception,  and  were 
several  times  informed  that  if  the  Massachu 
setts  Hospital  enjoyed  the  use  of  etherization, 
other  hospitals  ought  to  have  the  same  privi 
lege  ;  so  that  his  enterprise  proved  of  no  imme 
diate  advantage. 

The  Mexican  War  was  now  at  its  height,  and 
Doctor  Morton  offered  the  use  of  etherization 
to  the  government  for  a  very  small  royalty,  but 
his  offer  was  declined  by  the  Secretary  of  War. 
He  soon  discovered,  however,  that  surgeons  in 
the  army  and  navy  were  making  free  use  of  it, — 
contrary  to  law  and  the  rights  of  men.  Indi 
viduals  all  over  the  country — dentists  and  sur 
geons — were  doing  the  same  thing;  and  it  was 
more  difficult  to  prevent  this  than  to  execute  the 


324  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

game-laws.  For  such  an  order  of  affairs  the 
decision  of  the  French  Academy  was  largely 
responsible,  for  if  men  only  find  a  shadow  of 
right  on  the  side  of  self-interest,  they  are  likely 
enough  to  take  advantage  of  it. 

Meanwhile  Doctor  Jackson,  with  a  few 
friends  and  a  large  body  of  Homoeopaths  who 
acted  in  opposition  to  the  regulars  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Hospital,  kept  up  a  continual  fusil 
lade  against  Doctor  Morton;  but  this  did  him 
little  harm,  for  early  in  1847  the  trustees  of  the 
hospital  decided,  by  a  unanimous  vote,  that  the 
honor  of  discovering  etherization  properly 
belonged  to  him. 

Doctor  Jackson  questioned  the  justice  of  this 
decision,  and  applied  for  a  reconsideration  of 
the  subject.  Whereupon  the  subject  was  recon 
sidered  the  following  year,  and  the  same  verdict 
rendered  as  before.  Doctor  Jackson  then  car 
ried  his  case  to  the  Boston  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  when  Professor  Agassiz  asked  him  the 
pertinent  question:  "But,  Doctor  Jackson,  did 
you  make  one  little  experiment!"  adding  drily, 
after  receiving  a  negative  reply:  "It  would 
have  been  better  if  you  had. ' ' 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  Doctor  Jackson 
should  have  attacked  Doctor  Morton's  private 
life  (which  appears  to  have  been  fully  as  com 
mendable  as  his  own),  and  also  that  B.  W. 
Emerson  should  have  entered  the  lists  in  favor 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  325 

of  his  brother-in-law.  In  one  of  his  later  books 
Emerson  designates  Doctor  Jackson  as  the  dis 
coverer  of  etherization.  This  was  setting  his 
own  judgment  above  that  of  the  legal  and  medi 
cal  professions,  and  even  above  the  French 
Academy;  but  Emerson  had  lived  so  long  in 
intuitions  and  poetical  concepts  that  he  was  not 
a  fairly  competent  person  to  judge  of  a  matter 
of  fact.  It  is  doubtful  if  he  made  use  of  the  in 
ductive  method  of  reasoning  during  his  life. 

Doctor  Morton  sought  legal  advice  in  regard 
to  the  infringement  of  his  patent  rights ;  but  he 
found  that  legal  proceedings  in  such  cases  were 
very  expensive,  and  was  counselled  to  apply  to 
Congress  for  redress  and  assistance.  This 
seemed  to  him  a  good  plan,  for  if  he  could  ex 
change  his  rights  in  etherization  for  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  he  would  be  satisfied ;  but  in 
the  end  it  proved  a  Nessus  shirt  to  strangle  the 
life  out  of  him.  He  soon  found  that  Congress 
could  not  be  moved  by  a  sense  of  justice,  but 
only  by  personal  influence.  He  gave  up  his  busi 
ness  in  Boston  and  went  to  Washington  with  his 
family,  but  this  soon  exhausted  his  slender  re 
sources.  Knowing  devils  informed  him  that  if 
he  wished  to  obtain  a  hundred  thousand  dollars 
from  the  government  he  would  have  to  expend 
fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  in  lobbying,  but  the 
idea  of  this  was  hateful  to  him,  and  he  declined 
to  make  the  requisite  pledges. 


326  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

The  winter  of  1850  and  of  1851  passed  with 
out  result,  until  finally  in  December  of  the  latter 
year,  Bissel,  of  Illinois,  made  a  speech  in  Doc 
tor  Morton's  favor,  calling  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  government  had  been  pirating  his 
patent,  and  proposing  that  the  subject  be  re 
ferred  to  a  committee.  Robert  Eantoul  sec 
onded  the  motion,  and  the  step  was  taken.  It 
was  considered  better  for  the  chances  of  success 
that  the  proposition  should  come  from  a  West 
ern  man. 

This  committee  continued  its  meeting 
throughout  the  winter  and  made  a  thorough 
going  examination  of  the  question  before  it. 
The  frankness  and  plain  character  of  Doctor 
Morton's  testimony  is  much  in  his  favor,  and 
the  description  he  gave  of  his  own  proceedings 
previous  to  the  first  operation  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  Hospital  show  how  hard  he  wrestled 
with  his  discovery, — wrestled  like  Jacob  of  old, 
—working  half  the  night  with  an  instrument- 
maker  to  devise  a  suitable  apparatus  for  inhala 
tion.  Doctor  Jackson  and  Horace  Wells  also 
presented  their  claims  to  the  committee  and 
were  respectfully  considered. 

The  report  of  this  committee  is  a  valuable 
document, — a  study  for  young  lawyers  in  the 
sifting  of  evidence, — and  of  itself  a  severe  criti 
cism  on  the  judgment  of  the  French  Academy, 
which  it  considered  at  too  great  a  distance  to 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  327 

judge  fairly  of  the  circumstances  attending  the 
advent  of  painless  surgery.  The  committee  de 
cided  unanimously  that  Doctor  Wells  did  not 
carry  his  experiments  far  enough  to  reach  a 
decided  result;  that  Doctor  Jackson's  testi 
mony  was  contradictory  and  not  much  to  be 
depended  on ;  and  that  the  credit  of  discovering 
painless  surgery  properly  appertained  to  Dr. 
W.  T.  G.  Morton.  They  recommended  an  ap 
propriation  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  be 
given  to  Doctor  Morton  in  return  for  the  free 
use  of  etherization  by  the  surgeons  of  the  army 
and  navy. 

A  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  little  enough. 
The  British  Government  paid  thirty  thousand 
pounds  as  a  gratuity  for  the  discovery  of  vac 
cination;  and  more  recently  a  poor  German 
student  made  a  much  larger  sum  by  the  inven 
tion  of  a  drug  which  has  since  fallen  into  dis 
use.  Half  a  million  would  not  have  been  more 
than  Morton  deserved,  and  a  hundred  thousand 
might  have  been  bestowed  on  Wells. 

Doctor  Morton  must  have  thought  now  that 
the  clouds  were  lifting  for  him  at  last ;  but  they 
soon  settled  down  darker  than  ever.  The  com 
mittee's  report  was  only  printed  towards  the 
close  of  the  session,  and  Congress,  gone  rabid 
over  the  Presidential  election,  neglected  to  con 
sider  it.  Neither  did  it  take  further  action  the 
following  winter.  A  year  later  a  bill  was  intro- 


328  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

duced  in  the  Senate  for  Doctor  Morton's  relief, 
and  was  ably  supported  by  Douglas,  of  Illinois, 
and  Hale,  of  New  Hampshire.  It  passed  the 
Senate  by  a  small  majority,  but  was  defeated 
by  the  "mud-gods"  of  the  House — defeated  by 
men  who  were  pilfering  the  national  treasury 
in  sinecures  for  their  relatives  and  supporters. 
In  the  history  of  our  government  I  know  of 
nothing  more  disgraceful  than  this, — except  the 
exculpation  of  Brooks  for  his  assault  on 
Sumner. 

Doctor  Morton  was  a  ruined  man.  His  slen 
der  means  had  long  since  been  exhausted,  and 
he  had  been  running  in  debt  for  the  past  two 
or  three  years,  as  Hawthorne  did  at  the  old 
manse.  Even  his  house  at  Wellesley  was  mort 
gaged.  His  business  was  gone,  and  his  health 
was  shattered.  He  felt  as  a  man  does  in  an 
earthquake.  The  government  could  not  have 
treated  him  more  cruelly  unless  it  had  put  him 
to  death. 

It  was  now,  as  a  final  resort,  that  he  went  to 
see  President  Pierce,  always  a  kindly  man,  ex 
cept  where  Kansas  affairs  were  concerned ;  and 
Pierce  advised  him  to  bring  a  suit  for  infringe 
ment  of  his  rights  against  a  surgeon  in  the  navy. 
Doctor  Morton  found  a  lawyer  who  was  willing 
to  take  the  risk  for  a  large  share  of  the  profits, 
and  gained  his  case.  His  house  was  saved,  but 
he  returned  to  Wellesley  poorer  than  when  he 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  329 

came  to  Boston  to  seek  his  fortune,  a  youth  of 
eighteen. 

There  was  great  indignation  at  the  Massachu 
setts  Hospital  when  the  result  of  Doctor  Mor 
ton's  case  before  Congress  was  known  there, 
and  soon  after  his  return  an  effort  was  made  to 
raise  a  substantial  testimonial  for  him.  That 
noble-hearted  physician,  Dr.  Henry  I.  Bow- 
ditch,  interested  himself  so  conspicuously  in 
this  that  Doctor  Morton  named  his  youngest 
son  for  him. 

A  similar  effort  was  made  by  the  medical 
profession  in  New  York  city,  and  a  sufficient 
sum  obtained  to  render  Doctor  Morton  mod 
erately  comfortable  during  the  remainder  of 
his  earthly  existence,  and  to  educate  his  eldest 
son. 

Doctor  Morton's  health  was  too  much  shat 
tered  for  professional  work  now,  and  he  re 
signed  himself  to  his  fate.  He  raised  cattle  at 
Wellesley,  and  imported  fine  cattle  as  a  health 
ful  out-of-door  occupation.  In  the  autumn  of 
1862  he  joined  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  as  a 
volunteer  surgeon,  and  applied  ether  to  more 
than  two  thousand  wounded  soldiers  during  the 
battles  of  Fredericksburg,  Chancellorsville,  and 
the  Wilderness.  At  the  same  time  Senator  Wil- 
revive  the  gratuity  for  Morton  in  Congress,  but 
revive  the  gratuity  for  Morton  in  Congress,  but 
the  decision  of  the  French  Academy  was  in 


330  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

men's  minds,  and  a  vicious  precedent  proved 
stronger  than  reason. 

I  saw  Doctor  Morton  for  the  last  time  about 
nine  months  before  his  death;  and  the  impres 
sion  his  appearance  made  on  me  was  indelible. 
He  was  walking  in  the  path  before  his  house 
with  his  eldest  daughter,  and  he  seemed  like  the 
victim  of  an  old  Greek  tragedy — a  noble  (Edi- 
pus  who  had  solved  the  Sphynx's  riddle,  at 
tended  by  his  faithful  Antigone. 

In  July,  1868,  a  torrid  wave  swept  over  the 
Northern  States  which  carried  off  many  frail 
and  delicate  persons  in  the  large  cities,  and 
Doctor  Morton  was  one  of  those  who  suffered 
from  it.  He  happened  to  be  in  New  York  City 
at  the  time,  and  went  to  Central  Park  to  escape 
the  feeling  of  suffocation  which  oppressed  him, 
but  never  returned  alive.  He  now  lies  in  Mount 
Auburn  Cemetery,  with  a  modest  monument 
over  his  grave  erected  by  his  Boston  friends, 
with  this  epitaph  composed  by  Dr.  Jacob 
Bigelow : 

WILLIAM   T.  G.  MORTON 

INVENTOR  AND  REVEALER  OF  ANAESTHETIC   INHALATION 

BY   WHOM,   PAIN   IN    SURGERY  WAS   ARRESTED  AND   ANNULLED 

BEFORE   WHOM,   IN   ALL  TIME,    SURGERY   WAS  AGONY 

SINCE  WHOM,  SCIENCE  HAS  CONTROL  OF  PAIN 

Doctor  Morton  was  a  self-made  man,  but  not 
a  rough  diamond, — rather  one  of  Nature's  gen- 


DR.  W.  T.  G.  MORTON  331 

tlemen.  The  pleasant  urbanity  of  his  manner 
was  so  conspicuous  that  no  person  of  sensibility 
could  approach  him  without  being  impressed  by 
it.  His  was  a  character  such  as  those  who  live 
by  academic  rules  would  be  more  likely  to  mis 
judge  than  to  comprehend. 

The  semi-centennial  of  painless  surgery  was 
celebrated,  in  1896,  in  Boston,  New  York,  Lon 
don,  and  other  cities,  and  the  credit  of  its  dis 
covery  was  universally  awarded  to  William  T. 
G.  Morton.  About  the  same  time  it  happened 
that  the  Massachusetts  State  House  was  recon 
structed,  and  William  Endicott,  as  Commis 
sioner,  and  a  near  relative  of  Eobert  Rantoul, 
had  Morton's  name  emblazoned  in  the  Hall  of 
Fame  with  those  of  Franklin,  Morse,  and  Bell. 
This  may  be  said  to  have  decided  the  contro 
versy;  but,  like  many  another  benefactor  of 
mankind,  Doctor  Morton's  reward  on  earth  was 
a  crown  of  thorns. 


LEAVES    FEOM   A   BOMAN   DIARY 
February,  1869 

(Rewritten  in  1897) 

As  I  look  out  of  P—  -'s  windows  on  the  Via 
Frattina  every  morning  at  the  plaster  bust  of 
Pius  IX.,  I  like  his  face  more  and  more,  and 
feel  that  he  is  not  an  unworthy  companion  to 
George  Washington  and  the  young  Augustus.* 
I  think  there  may  be  something  of  the  fox,  or 
rather  of  the  crow,  in  his  composition,  but  his 
face  has  the  wholeness  of  expression  which 
shows  a  sound  and  healthy  mind, — not  a  patch 
work  character.  I  was  pleased  to  hear  that  he 
was  originally  a  liberal;  and  the  first,  after 
the  long  conservative  reaction  of  Metternich,  to 
introduce  reforms  in  the  states  of  the  Church. 
The  Eevolution  of  1848  followed  too  quickly, 
and  the  extravagant  proceedings  of  Mazzini  and 
Garibaldi  drove  him  into  the  ranks  of  the  con 
servatives,  where  he  has  remained  ever  since. 
Carlyle  compared  him  to  a  man  who  had  an 
old  tin-kettle  which  he  thought  he  would  mend, 
but  as  soon  as  he  began  to  tinker  it  the  thing 
went  to  pieces  in  his  hands.  The  Revolution  of 
1848  proved  an  unpractical  experiment,  but  it 

*  Three  busts  in  a  row. 
332 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         333 

opened  the  way  for  Victor  Emanuel  and  a  more 
sound  liberalism  in  1859. 

We  attended  service  at  the  Sistine  Chapel 
yesterday  in  company  with  two  young  ladies 
from  Philadelphia,  who  wore  long  black  veils 
so  that  Pius  IX.  might  not  catch  the  least 
glimpse  of  their  pretty  faces.  I  was  disap 
pointed  in  my  hope  of  obtaining  a  view  of  the 
Pope's  face.  Cardinal  Bonaparte  sat  just  in 
front  of  us,  a  man  well  worth  observing.  He 
looks  to  be  the  ablest  living  member  of  that 
family,  and  bears  a  decided  resemblance  to  the 
old  Napoleon.  His  features  are  strong,  his  eyes 
keen,  and  he  wears  his  red  cap  in  a  jaunty 
manner  on  the  side  of  his  head.  When  the  bless 
ing  was  passed  around  the  conclave  of  Cardi 
nals,  Bonaparte  transferred  it  to  his  next 
neighbor  as  if  he  meant  to  put  it  through  him. 
It  is  supposed  that  he  will  be  the  successor  of 
Pius  IX. ;  but,  as  Rev.  Samuel  Longfellow  says, 
that  will  depend  very  much  upon  whether  Louis 
Napoleon  is  alive  at  the  time  of  the  election. 

The  singing  in  the  Sistine  Chapel  is  not  worth 
listening  to,  besides  having  unpleasant  associa 
tions  ;  so  during  the  service  we  had  an  excellent 
opportunity  to  study  Michael  Angelo's  Last 
Judgment — for  there  was  nothing  else  to  be 
done. 

Kugler  considers  the  picture  an  inharmonious 
composition,  and  that  nothing  could  be  more 


334  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

disagreeable  than  the  stout  figure  of  St.  Bar 
tholomew  holding  a  flaying  knife  in  one  hand 
and  his  own  mortal  hide  in  the  other.  This 
is  not  a  pleasant  spectacle ;  but  Michael  Angelo 
did  not  paint  for  other  people's  pleasure,  but 
rather  to  satisfy  his  own  conscience.  It  was 
customary  to  introduce  St.  Bartholomew  in  this 
manner,  for  there  was  no  other  way  in  which 
he  could  be  identified.  We  found  the  towering 
form  of  St.  Christopher  on  the  left  side  of  the 
Saviour  rather  more  of  an  eyesore  than  St. 
Bartholomew,  whose  expression  of  awe  par 
tially  redeems  his  appearance. 

The  Saviour  has  a  herculean  frame,  but  his 
face  and  head  are  magnificent.  He  has  no 
beard,  and  his  hair  is  arranged  in  festoons 
which  gives  the  impression  of  a  wreath  of  grape 
leaves.  The  expression  of  his  face  is  the  noblest 
I  have  seen  in  any  work  of  art  in  Eome ;  the  face 
that  has  risen  through  suffering;  calm,  com 
passionate,  immutable.  The  Madonna  seems 
like  a  girl  beside  this  stalwart  form,  and  she 
draws  close  to  her  son  with  naive  timidity  at 
the  vast  concourse  which  crowds  about  them. 
Her  face  is  expressive  of  resignation  and  com 
passion  rather  than  any  joyful  feeling. 

The  left  side  of  this  vast  painting,  in  which 
the  bodies  of  men  and  women  are  rising  from 
their  graves,  is  less  interesting  than  the  right 
side,  where  the  saints  and  blessed  are  gathered 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         335 

together  above  and  the  sinners  are  hurled  down 
below.  Michael  Angelo's  saints  and  apostles 
look  like  vigorous  men  of  affairs,  and  are  all 
rather  stout  and  muscular.  The  attitudes  of 
some  of  them  are  by  no  means  conventional,  but 
they  are  natural  and  unconstrained.  St.  Peter, 
holding  forth  the  keys,  is  a  magnificent  figure. 
The  group  of  the  saved  who  are  congregated 
above  the  saints  is  the  pleasantest  portion  of 
the  picture.  Here  Damon  and  Pythias  embrace 
each  other;  a  young  husband  springs  to  greet 
the  wife  whom  he  lost  too  early ;  a  poor  unfor 
tunate  to  whom  life  was  a  curse  is  timidly 
raising  his  eyes,  scarcely  believing  that  he  is  in 
paradise ;  men  with  fine  philosophic  heads  con 
verse  together ;  and  a  number  of  honest  serving- 
women  express  their  astonishment  with  such 
gestures  as  are  customary  among  that  class  of 
persons. 

In  the  lunettes  above,  wingless  angels  are 
hovering  with  the  cross,  the  column,  and  other 
instruments  of  Christ 's  agony,  which  they  clasp 
with  a  loving  devotion.  In  the  lower  right-hand 
corner,  Charon  appears  (taken  from  pagan 
mythology)  with  a  boat-load  of  sinners,  whom 
he  smites  with  his  oar  according  to  Dante's  de 
scription.  He  is  truly  a  terrible  demon,  and 
his  fiery  eyes  gleam  across  the  length  of  the 
chapel.  Minos,  who  receives  the  boat-load  in 
the  likeness  of  Biagio  da  Cesena,  the  pope's 


336  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

master  of  ceremonies,  is  another  to  match  him. 
A  modern  fop  with  banged  hair  is  stepping 
from  the  boat  to  the  shore  of  hell.  This  is  said 
to  be  the  best  painted  portion  of  the  picture,— 
most  life-like  and  free  from  mannerism.  It  is 
"a  mighty  work,  and  too  little  appreciated,  like 
many  other  works  of  art,  chiefly  owing  to  the 
critics,  who  do  not  understand  it,  and  write  a 
lingo  of  their  own  which  is  not  easy  to  make  out 
and  does  not  come  to  much  after  all.* 

After  the  service  we  went  into  St.  Peter's 
with  the  ladies,  and  walked  the  whole  circuit  of 
th,e  church.  Our  ladies  talked  meanwhile  ex 
actly  as  they  might  at  an  American  watering- 
place,  without  apparently  observing  anything 
about  them.  When  we  came  to  the  statue  of  St. 
Peter,  P—  -  said,  pointing  to  the  big  toe :  "You 
see  there  the  mischief  that  can  be  done  by  too 
much  kissing."  Nearly  a  third  of  the  toe  has 
been  worn  away  by  the  oscular  applications  of 
the  faithful. 

Feb.  4. — Dr.  B.  B.  Appleton,  an  American 
resident  of  Florence,  is  here  on  a  flying  visit. 
We  have  heard  from  many  sources  of  the  kind 
ness  of  this  man  to  American  travellers,  espe 
cially  to  young  students.  In  fact,  he  took  P- 

*  All  this  shows  what  a  heart  there  was  in  Michael  Angelo, 
and  dissipates  the  assertion  of  a  recent  English  biographer 
that  Michael  Angelo  painted  masks  instead  of  faces,  with 
little  or  no  expression. 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         337 

into  his  house  while  at  Florence,  and  enter 
tained  him  in  the  most  generous  manner.  He 
has  done  the  same  for  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe 
and  many  others.  He  lives  with  an  Italian 
family  who  were  formerly  in  the  service  of  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany,  and  who  were  ruined 
by  the  recent  change  of  rulers.  Dr.  Appleton 
boards  with  them,  and  helps  to  support  them  in 
other  ways.  In  spite  of  his  goodness  he  does 
not  seem  to  be  happy. 

One  of  his  chief  friends  in  Florence  is  Frau- 
lein  Assig,  who  was  banished  from  Prussia 
together  with  her  publisher  for  editing  Von 
Humboldt's  memoirs,  which  were  perhaps  too 
severely  critical  of  the  late  king  of  Prussia. 
The  book,  however,  had  an  excellent  sale,  and 
she  now  lives  contentedly  in  Florence,  where 
she  is  well  acquainted  both  with  prominent  lib 
erals  and  leading  members  of  the  government. 
Dr.  Appleton  reports  that  a  cabinet  officer  lately 
said  to  her,  "We  may  move  to  Eome  at  any 
time." 

Louis  Napoleon  is  the  main-stay  of  the  pap 
acy,  and  the  only  one  it  has.  The  retrocession 
of  Venetia  to  Italy  has  separated  Austria  effect 
ually  from  the  states  of  the  Church,  and  the 
Spaniards  are  too  much  taken  up  with  their 
internal  affairs  to  interfere  at  present  in  the 
pope's  behalf.  Napoleon's  health  is  known  to 
be  delicate,  and  prayers  for  his  preservation 

22 


338  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

are  offered  up  daily  in  Koman  churches.  If  he 
should  die  before  his  son  comes  of  age  great 
political  changes  may  be  looked  for. 

Meanwhile  murmurs  of  discontent  are  heard 
on  all  sides.  The  city  is  unclean  and  badly 
cared  for.  The  civil  offices  are  said  to  be  filled 
mainly  with  nepheivs  of  cardinals  and  other 
prelates.  Even  Italians  of  the  lower  classes 
know  enough  of  political  economy  to  foresee 
that  if  Borne  was  the  capital  of  Italy  it  would 
be  more  prosperous  than  it  is  at  present.  The 
value  of  land  would  rise,  and  all  the  small  trades 
would  flourish.  This  is  what  is  really  under 
mining  the  power  of  Pius  IX.  A  most  curious 
sign  of  the  times  is  the  general  belief  among 
the  Roman  populace  that  the  Pope  has  an  evil 
eye.  How  long  since  this  originated  I  have  not 
been  able  to  learn;  but  it  is  not  uncommon  for 
those  who  chance  to  see  the  pope  in  his  car 
riage,  especially  women,  to  go  immediately  into 
the  nearest  church  for  purification.  A  few  days 
since  the  train  from  Eome  to  Florence  ran  into 
a  buffalo,  and  the  locomotive  was  thrown  off 
the  track.  Even  this  was  attributed  to  the  fact 
that  the  engineer  had  encountered  the  pope 
near  the  Quirinal  the  previous  Sunday. 

Dr.  Appleton  told  us  a  story  at  dinner  about 
the  youth  of  Louis  Napoleon.  His  Florentine 
housekeeper,  Gori,  remembers  Hortense  and 
her  two  sons  very  distinctly;  for  Louis  once 


LEAVES    FROM    A   ROMAN   DIARY         339 

met  him  in  the  Boboli  Gardens  and  insisted  on 
his  smoking  a  cigar,  in  order  to  laugh  at  him 
when  it  had  made  him  sick, — as  it  was  Gori's 
first  experience  with  tobacco.  He  also  says  that 
on  one  occasion  when  the  young  princes  had 
some  sort  of  a  feast  together,  the  others  all  gave 
the  caterer  from  five  to  ten  francs  as  a  pour- 
boir,  but  Louis  Napoleon  gave  him  a  twenty- 
franc  piece.  When  his  companions  expressed 
their  surprise  at  this  Louis  said:  "It  is  only 
right  that  I  should  do  so,  for  some  day  I  shall 
be  Emperor. " 

As  a  rule  few  Italian  men  attend  church. 
The  women  go;  but  the  men,  if  not  heretical, 
are  at  least  rather  indifferent  on  the  subject  of 
religion.  Macaulay  refers  to  this  fact  in  his 
essay  on  Macchiavelli,  and  Dr.  Appleton,  who 
has  lived  among  them,  knows  it  to  be  true.  To 
make  amends  for  it,  English  and  American 
ladies  are  returning  to  the  fold  of  St.  Peter  in 
large  numbers ;  and  many  of  them  bring  their 
male  relatives  eventually  with  them.  I  believe 
this  to  be  largely  a  matter  of  fashion.  They 
have  always  accepted  the  Protestant  creed  as 
a  matter  of  course,  and  coming  here,  where  they 
are  separated  from  all  previous  associations, 
they  find  themselves  out  of  tune  with  their  sur 
roundings.  They  feel  lonely,  as  all  travellers 
do  at  times,  and  being  in  need  of  sympathy  are 
easily  impressed  by  those  about  them.  Most  of 


340  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

them  have  Catholic  maids,  who  often  serve  as 
stepping-stones  to  the  acquaintance  of  the 
priest.  Conversion  gives  them  a  kind  of  im 
portance,  which  Catholic  ladies  of  rank  know 
how  to  make  the  most  of.  The  external  gran 
deur  of  Catholicism  as  we  see  it  here  has  also 
its  due  influence. 

Feb.  9. — I  was  greatly  disgusted  last  evening 
while  calling  on  two  New  England  ladies,  who 
were  formerly  my  schoolmates,  to  have  a  pom 
pous  priest  walk  in  and  take  possession  of  the 
parlor,  spoiling  my  pleasant  tete-a-tete.  He  sat 
in  the  middle  of  the  room  like  a  pail  of  water, 
and  stared  about  in  the  most  ill-mannered  way. 
My  friends  remarked  that  he  was  the  ablate 
of  the  Pantheon,  and  he  inquired  if  I  had  been 
to  see  it ;  to  which  I  replied  that  I  had,  and  that 
I  considered  it  the  noblest  building  in  Borne. 
This  seemed  to  be  a  new  idea  to  him,  and  one 
which  he  did  not  altogether  like.  Not  long  since 
I  came  upon  a  priest  drinking  wine  with  some 
young  artists,  and  laughing  at  jokes  for  which 
a  stage-driver  might  be  ashamed.  There  are 
fine  exceptions  among  them,  but  as  a  class  they 
appear  to  me  coarse  and  even  vicious, — by  no 
means  spiritually  attractive.  Monks  are  not 
attractive  either,  but  in  their  way  they  are 
much  more  interesting.  Eeligion  seems  to  be 
meat  and  drink  to  them. 

P and  I  were  invited  to  dine  by  an  Ameri- 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN   DIARY         341 

can  Catholic  lady  who  was  formerly  a  friend  of 
Margaret  Fuller,  and  who  having  been  incau 
tiously  left  in  Borne  by  her  husband,  embraced 
Catholicism  before  he  was  fairly  across  the 
Atlantic, — to  his  lasting  sorrow  and  vexation. 
Being  in  an  influential  position  she  has  made 
many  converts,  and  it  is  said  that  she  has  come 
to  Rome  on  the  present  occasion  to  be  sainted 
by  the  pope.  She  has  already  loaned  P—  -  a 
biography  of  Father  Lacordaire,  which  he  has 
not  had  leisure  to  read.  He  referred  to  it,  as 
soon  as  politeness  permitted,  with  a  shrewd  in 
quiry  as  to  whether  the  book  did  not  give  rather 
a  rose-colored  view  of  practical  Catholicism. 
Mrs.  X—  -  turned  to  her  daughters  and  said 
with  all  imaginable  sweetness :  "Just  hear  him, 
—the  poor  child!"  Then  she  went  off  into  a 
long,  eloquent,  and  really  interesting  discourse 
on  the  true,  sole,  and  original  Christian  Church. 
She  admitted,  however,  that  during  the  six 
teenth  century  the  Christian  faith  had  much 
fallen  into  decay,  and  that  Martin  Luther  was 
not  to  be  blamed  for  his  exhortations  against 
the  evil  practices  of  popes  and  cardinals.  Now 
that  the  Church  had  been  reformed  it  was  alto 
gether  different.  She  told  us  how  she  became 
converted.  It  came  to  her  like  a  vision  on  a 
gloomy  winter  day,  while  she  was  looking  into 
the  embers  of  a  wood-fire. 

Then  she  talked  about  Margaret  Fuller,  whom 


342  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

she  called  the  most  brilliant  woman  she  had  ever 
known.  She  had  never  loved  another  woman 
so  much;  but  it  was  a  dangerous  love.  If  she 
wrote  a  rather  gushing  letter  to  Margaret,  she 
would  receive  in  reply,  "How  could  you  have 
written  so  beautifully?  You  must  have  been 
inspired."  This,  she  said,  had  all  the  effect  of 
flattery  without  being  intended  for  it,  and  was 
so  much  the  more  mischievous.  '  *  Emerson  and 
Margaret  Fuller,"  said  Mrs.  X ,  "put  in 
spiration  in  the  place  of  religion.  They  believed 
that  some  people  had  direct  communication  with 
the  Almighty. ' '  P—  -  and  I  thought  this  might 
be  true  of  Miss  Fuller,  but  doubted  it  in  Emer 
son's  case. 

Miss  X—  told  me  that  she  had  lately 
ascended  to  the  rotunda  of  the  Capitol,  from 
which  the  pope's  flag  flies  all  day,  and  that  she 
had  asked  the  Swiss  guard  what  he  would  do  if 
she  hoisted  the  tricolor  there.  He  replied :  "I 
should  shoot  you. ' '  Nothing  could  be  more  kind 
or  truly  courteous  than  the  manner  in  which 
these  ladies  treated  us. 

Another  distinguished  convert  here  is  Mrs. 
Margaret  Eveleth,  a  rare,  spirituelle  woman, 
who  was  born  within  a  mile  of  my  father's 
house.  She  was  formerly  a  Unitarian,  but 
soon  became  a  Catholic  on  coming  to  Rome. 
While  she  was  in  process  of  transition  from 
one  church  to  the  other  she  wrote  a  number  of 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         343 

letters  to  her  former  pastor  in  New  York,  re 
questing  information  on  points  of  faith.  Not 
one  of  these  letters  was  ever  answered,  and  it 
is  incredible  to  suppose  that  they  would  not 
have  been  if  he  had  received  them.  It  is  highly 
probable  that  they  never  left  Rome.  I  have  my 
self  been  warned  to  attach  my  stamps  to  letters 
firmly,  so  that  they  may  not  be  stolen  in  passing 
through  the  Post-office.  Postage  here  is  also 
double  what  it  is  in  Florence. 

Feb.  12. — I  have  been  looking  for  some  time 
to  find  a  good  picture  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and 
have  generally  become  known  among  Roman 
photographers  as  the  man  who  wants  the  Marc 
Aureli.  This  morning  I  had  just  left  my  room 
when  I  discovered  Rev.  Samuel  Longfellow  in 
a  photograph  shop  in  the  Via  Frattina.  ' '  I  was 
just  coming  to  see  you,"  he  said;  "and  I 
stopped  here  to  look  for  a  photograph  of  Mar 
cus  Aurelius."  He  laughed  when  I  told  him 
that  I  had  been  on  the  same  quest,  and  sug 
gested  that  we  should  walk  to  the  Capitol 
together  and  look  at  the  statue  and  bust  of  our 
favorite  emperor.  ' '  I  think  he  was  the  greatest 
of  the  Romans,"  said  Mr.  Longfellow,  "  if  not 
the  noblest  of  all  the  ancients." 

So  we  walked  together— as  we  never  shall 
again — through  the  long  Cor  so  with  its  array  of 
palaces,  past  the  column  of  Aurelius  and  the 
fragments  of  Trajan's  forum,  until  we  reached 


344  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

the  ancient  Capitol  of  Borne,  rearranged  by 
Michael  Angelo.  Here  we  stood  before  the 
equestrian  statue  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  con 
sidered  how  it  might  be  photographed  to  advan 
tage.  "I  do  not  think, "  said  Bev.  Mr.  Long 
fellow,  "that  we  can  obtain  a  satisfactory 
picture  of  it.  The  face  is  too  dark  to  be  ex 
pressive,  and  it  is  the  man's  face  that  I  want; 
and  I  suppose  you  do  also." 

I  asked  him  how  he  could  explain  the  creation 
of  such  a  noble  statue  in  the  last  decline  of 
Greek  art ;  he  said  he  would  not  attempt  to  ex 
plain  it  except  on  the  ground  that  things  do  not 
always  turn  out  as  critics  and  historians  would 
have  them.  It  was  natural  that  the  arts  should 
revive  somewhat  under  the  patronage  of 
Hadrian  and  the  Antonines. 

We  went  into  the  museum  of  the  Capitol  to 
look  for  the  bust  of  the  young  Aurelius,  which 
shone  like  a  star  (to  use  Homer's  expression) 
among  its  fellows,  but  we  discovered  from  the 
earth-stains  on  portions  of  it  why  the  photog 
raphers  had  not  succeeded  better  with  it.  We 
decided  that  our  best  resource  would  be  to  have 
Mr.  Appleton's  copy  of  it  photographed,  and 
Eev.  Mr.  Longfellow  agreed  to  undertake  the 
business  with  me  in  the  forenoon  of  the  next 
day. 

The  busts  of  the  Eoman  emperors  were  inter 
esting  because  their  characters  are  so  strongly 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         345 

marked  in  history.  The  position  would  seem 
to  have  made  either  brutes  or  heroes  of  them. 
Tiberius,  who  was  no  doubt  the  natural  son  of 
Augustus,  resembles  him  as  a  donkey  does  a 
horse.  Caligula,  Nero,  and  Domitian  had  small, 
feminine  features ;  Nero  a  bullet-head  and  sen 
sual  lips,  but  the  others  quite  refined.  During 
the  first  six  years  of  Nero 's  reign  he  was  not  so 
bad  as  he  afterwards  became;  and  I  saw  an 
older  bust  of  him  in  Paris  which  is  too  horrible 
to  be  looked  at  more  than  once.  Vespasian  has 
a  coarse  face,  but  wonderfully  good-humored; 
and  Titus,  called  "the  delight  of  mankind/' 
looks  like  an  improvement  on  Augustus.  The 
youthful  Commodus  bears  a  decided  resem 
blance  to  his  father,  and  there  is  no  indication 
in  his  face  to  suggest  the  monster  which  he 
finally  became. 

Early  in  the  next  forenoon  I  reached  the 
Hotel  Costanzi  in  good  season  and  inquired  for 
the  Eev.  Mr.  Longfellow.  He  soon  appeared, 
together  with  Mr.  T.  Gr.  Appleton,  who  was  evi 
dently  pleased  at  my  interest  in  the  young  Aure- 
lius,  and  remarked  that  it  was  a  more  interest 
ing  work  than  the  young  Augustus.  The  bust 
had  been  sent  to  William  Story's  studio  to  be 
cleaned,  and  thither  we  all  proceeded  in  the  best 
possible  spirits. 

We  found  a  photographer  named  Giovanni 
Braccia  on  the  floor  a  piano  above  Mr.  Story; 


346  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

and  after  a  lengthy  discussion  with  him,  in 
which  Mr.  Longfellow  was  the  leading  figure,  he 
agreed  to  take  the  photographs  at  two  napo 
leons  a  dozen.*  When  the  bust  was  brought  in 
Mr.  Longfellow  called  my  attention  to  the  in 
cisions  representing  pupils  in  the  eyes,  which 
he  said  were  a  late  introduction  in  sculpture, 
and  not  generally  considered  an  improvement. 
After  this  Mr.  Appleton  called  to  us  to  come 
with  him  to  the  studio  of  an  English  painter  in 
the  same  building,  whose  name  I  cannot  now 
recollect.  He  was  the  type  of  a  graceful,  ani 
mated  young  artist,  and  had  just  finished  a 
painting  representing  ancient  youths  and  maid 
ens  in  a  procession  with  the  light  coming  from 
the  further  side,  so  that  their  faces  were  mostly 
in  shadow,  with  bright  line  along  the  profile,— 
an  effect  which  it  requires  skill  to  render. 

On  returning  to  the  street  we  looked  into  Mr. 
Story's  outer  room  again,  where  the  casts  of 
all  his  statues  were  seated  in  a  double  row  like 
persons  at  a  theatre.  Mr.  Appleton  was  rather 
severe  in  his  criticism  of  them,  though  he  ad 
mitted  that  the  Cleopatra  (which  I  believe  was 
a  replica)  had  a  finely  modulated  face. 

Feb.  15. — Warrington  Wood  invited  P— 
and  myself  to  lunch  with  him  in  his  studio, 

*  These  pictures  proved  to  be  fine  reproductions,  and  are 
still  to  be  met  with  in  Boston  and  Cambridge  parlors. 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         347 

and  at  the  appointed  time  a  waiter  ap 
peared  from  the  Lapre  with  a  great  tin  box  on 
his  shoulder  filled  with  spaghetti,  roast  goat, 
and  other  Italian  dishes.  We  had  just  spread 
these  on  a  table  in  front  of  the  clay  model  of 
Michael  and  Satan,  when  Wood's  marble-cutter 
rushed  in  to  announce  the  King  and  Queen  of 
Naples.  Wood  hastily  threw  a  green  curtain 
over  the  dishes,  while  P—  -  and  I  retreated  to 
the  further  end  of  the  room. 

The  Queen  of  Naples  is  a  fine-looking  and 
spirited  person,  still  quite  young,  and  talks  Eng 
lish  well.  She  conversed  with  Wood  and  asked 
him  a  number  of  questions  about  his  group,  and 
also  about  the  stag-hound,  Eric,  that  was  stand 
ing  sentinel.  The  King  said  almost  nothing, 
and  moving  about  as  if  he  knew  not  what  to  do 
with  himself,  finally  backed  up  against  the  table 
where  our  lunch  was  covered  by  the  green  cloth. 
I  think  he  had  an  idea  of  sitting  down  on  it,  but 
the  dishes  set  up  such  a  clatter  that  he  beat  a 
hasty  retreat.  The  King  did  not  move  a  muscle 
of  his  countenance,  but  the  Queen  looked  around 
and  said  something  to  him  in  Italian,  laughing 
pleasantly.  She  is  said  to  be  friendly  to  Ameri 
cans  and  is  quite  intimate  with  Miss  Harriet 
Hosmer.  She  is  at  least  a  woman  of  noble  cour 
age,  and  when  Garibaldi  besieged  Naples  she 
went  on  to  the  ramparts  and  rallied  the  soldiers 
with  the  shells  bursting  about  her. 


348  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

They  subscribed  themselves  in  Wood's  regis 
ter  under  the  name  of  Bourbon,  and  after  their 
departure  we  found  our  lunch  cold,  but  perhaps 
we  relished  it  better  for  this  visitation  of  roy 
alty.  Then  we  all  went  to  the  carnival,  where 
an  Italian  lazzaroni  attempted  to  pick  Wood's 
pocket,  but  was  caught  in  the  act  and  soundly 
kicked  by  Wood. 

This  was  the  most  entertaining  event  of  the 
afternoon.  The  best  part  of  the  carnival  was 
the  quantity  of  fresh  flowers  that  were  brought 
in  from  the  country  and  sold  at  very  moderate 
prices.  P—  -  distinguished  himself  throwing 
bouquets  to  ladies  in  the  balconies.  It  is  said 
that  he  has  an  admirer  among  them.  For  the 
first  hour  or  so  I  found  it  entertaining  enough, 
but  after  that  I  became  weary  of  its  endless 
repetition.  Eighty  years  since  Goethe,  seated 
in  one  of  these  balconies,  was  obliged  to  ask  for 
paper  and  pencil  to  drive  away  ennui,  as  he 
afterwards  confessed.  The  carnival  now  is 
almost  entirely  given  up  to  the  English  and 
Americans;  while  many  of  the  lower  class  of 
Italians  mix  in  it  disguised  in  masks  and  fancy 
dresses.  Four  masked  young  women  greeted  us 
with  confetti  and  danced  about  me  on  the  side 
walk.  One  tipped  up  my  hat  behind  and  another 
whispered  a  name  in  my  ear  which  I  did  not 
suppose  was  known  in  Europe.  I  have  not  yet 
discovered  who  they  were. 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         349 

Feb.  19. — I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  dining 
with  that  remarkable  woman  and  once  distin 
guished  actress,  Miss  Charlotte  Cushman.  Her 
nephew  was  consul  at  Home,  appointed  by  Wil 
liam  H.  Seward,  who  was  one  of  her  warmest 
American  friends.  She  is  still  queen  of  the 
stage,  and  of  her  own  household,  and  uncon 
sciously  gives  orders  to  the  servants  in  a  dra 
matic  manner  which  is  sometimes  very  amusing. 
So  it  was  to  hear  her  sing,  "Mary,  call  the 
cattle  home,"  as  if  she  were  sending  for  the 
heavy  artillery.  She  impresses  me,  however, 
as  one  of  the  most  genuine  of  womankind ;  and 
her  conversation  is  delightful, — so  sympathetic, 
appreciative,  full  of  strong  good  sense,  and 
fresh  original  views.  She  has  small  mercy  on 
newly-converted  Catholics.  "The  faults  of 
men,"  she  said,  "are  chiefly  those  of  strength, 
but  the  faults  of  my  own  sex  arise  from  weak 
ness."  I  happened  to  refer  to  Mr.  Appleton's 
bust  of  Aurelius,  and  she  said  she  was  surprised 
he  had  purchased  it,  for  it  did  not  seem  to  her 
a  satisfactory  copy;  a  conclusion  that  I  had 
been  slowly  coming  to  myself.  She  has  a  bronze 
replica  of  Story's  "Beethoven"  which,  like 
most  of  his  statues,  is  seated  in  a  chair,  and  a 
rather  realistic  work,  as  Miss  Cushman  ad 
mitted.  I  judged  from  the  conversation  at  table 
that  she  is  not  treated  with  full  respect  by  the 
English  and  American  society  here,  although 


350  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

looked  upon  as  a  distinguished  person.  The 
reason  for  this  may  be  more  owing  to  the  social 
position  of  her  relatives  than  her  former  pro 
fession.  Mrs.  Trelawney,  the  wife  of  Byron's 
eccentric  friend,  spoke  of  her  to  me  a  few  days 
ago  in  terms  of  the  highest  esteem.  She  is  a 
great-hearted  woman,  and  her  presence  would 
be  a  moral  power  anywhere. 

There  is  snobbishness  enough  in  Borne — Eng 
lish,  American,  and  Italian.  Doolittle,  who  is 
the  son  of  a  highly  respectable  New  York  law 
yer,  went  to  the  hunt  last  week,  as  he  openly 
confessed,  to  give  himself  distinction.  A  young 
lady  was  thrown  from  her  horse,  and  he  was  the 
first  person  to  come  to  her  assistance.  She 
thanked  him  for  it  at  the  time,  but  two  days 
afterwards  declined  to  recognize  his  acquaint 
ance.  This  was  probably  because  he  was  an 
artist,  or  rather  sets  up  for  one,  for  he  is  more 
like  a  gentleman  of  leisure. 

MY   LAST    VISIT    TO    THE    LONGFELLOWS. 

The  Longfellow  party  will  soon  depart  for 
Naples,  and  I  went  to  the  Costanzi  to  make  my 
final  call.  Mr.  Henry  W.  Longfellow  was  alone 
in  his  parlor  cutting  the  leaves  of  a  large  book. 
He  said  that  his  brother  had  gone  to  the  Pincion 
with  the  ladies,  but  would  probably  return  soon. 
Everything  this  man  says  and  does  has  the  same 
grace  and  elevated  tone  as  his  poetry.  I  took 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN   DIARY         351 

a  chair  and  pretty  soon  lie  said  to  me,  "How  do 

you  like  your  books,  Mr.  S ?  For  my  part, 

I  prefer  to  cut  the  leaves  of  a  book,  for  then  I 
feel  as  if  I  had  earned  the  right  to  read  it. "  I 
replied  that  I  liked  books  with  rough  edges  if 
they  were  printed  on  good  paper ;  and  then  he 
said,  "See  this  remarkable  picture." 

I  drew  my  chair  closer  to  him,  and  he  showed 
me  a  large  colored  chart  of  Hell  and  Purgatory, 
according  to  the  theory  that  prevailed  in 
Dante's  time.  Satan  with  his  three  faces  was 
represented  in  the  centre,  and  on  the  other  side 
rose  the  Mount  of  Purgatory. 

"It  is  an  Italian  commentary,"  he  said,  "on 
the  Divina  Commedia,"  which  had  been  sent 
to  him  that  day;  and  he  added  that  some  of 
the  information  in  it  was  of  a  very  curious 
sort. 

I  asked  him  if  he  could  read  Italian  as  easily 
as  English.  "Very  nearly,"  he  replied;  "but 
the  fine  points  of  Italian  are  as  difficult  as  those 
of  German." 

He  inquired  how  I  and  my  friends  spent  our 
evenings  in  Eome,  and  I  said,  "In  all  kinds  of 
study  and  reading,  but  just  now  P—  -  was  at 
work  on  Browning's  'King  and  the  Book.' 

Mr.  Longfellow  laughed.  "I  do  not  wonder 
you  call  it  work,"  he  said.  "It  seems  to  me  a 
story  told  in  so  many  different  ways  may  be 


352  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

something  of  a  curiosity — not  much  of  a 
poem. ' '  * 

I  remarked  that  Rev.  Mr.  Longfellow  had  a 
decided  partiality  for  Browning.  "Yes,"  he 
said;  "Sam  likes  him,  and  my  friend  John 
Weiss  prefers  him  to  Tennyson.  My  objection 
is  to  his  diction.  I  have  always  found  the  Eng 
lish  language  sufficient  for  my  purpose,  and 
have  never  tried  to  improve  on  it.  Browning's 
'Saul'  and  'The  Eide  from  Ghent  to  Aix'  are 
noble  poems." 

"Carlyle  also,"  I  said,  "has  a  peculiar  dic 
tion."  "That  is  true,"  he  replied,  "but  one 
can  forgive  anything  to  a  writer  who  has  so 
much  to  tell  us  as  Carlyle.  Besides,  he  writes 
prose,  and  not  poetry." 

He  took  up  a  photograph  which  was  lying  on 
the  table  and  showed  it  to  me,  saying,  "How  do 
you  like  Miss  Stebbins's  ' Satan'?"  I  told  him 
I  hardly  knew  how  to  judge  of  such  a  subject. 
Then  we  both  laughed,  and  Mr.  Longfellow  said : 
"I  wonder  what  our  artists  want  to  make 
Satans  for.  I  doubt  if  there  is  one  of  them  that 
believes  in  the  devil's  existence." 

*  I  have  since  observed  that  poets  as  a  class  are  not  fair 
critics  of  poetry;  for  they  are  sure  to  prefer  poetry  which 
is  like  their  own.  This  is  true  at  least  of  Lowell,  Emerson, 
or  Matthew  Arnold ;  but  when  I  came  to  read  "  The  Ring 
and  the  Book"  I  found  that  Longfellow's  objection  was  a 
valid  one. 


LEAVES   FROM   A   ROMAN  DIARY         353 

I  noticed  on  closer  examination  that  the  feat 
ures  resembled  those  of  Miss  Stebbins  herself. 
Mr.  Longfellow  looked  at  it  closely,  and  said, 
"  So  it  does, — somewhat. ' '  Then  I  told  him  that 
I  asked  Warrington  Wood  how  he  obtained  the 
expression  for  his  head  of  Satan,  and  that  he 
said  he  did  it  by  looking  in  the  glass  and  making 
up  faces.  Mr.  Longfellow  laughed  heartily  at 
this,  saying,  "I  suppose  Miss  Stebbins  did  the 
same,  and  that  is  how  it  came  about.  Our  sculp 
tors  should  be  careful  how  they  put  themselves 
in  the  devil's  place.  Wood  has  modelled  a  fine 
angel,  and  his  group  (Michael  and  Satan)  is 
altogether  an  effective  one." 

Rev.  Mr.  Longfellow  and  the  ladies  now  came 
in,  and  as  it  was  late  I  shook  hands  with  them 
all. 

It  is  reported  that  when  Mr.  Longfellow  met 
Cardinal  Antonelli  he  remarked  that  Rome  had 
changed  less  in  the  last  fifteen  years  than  other 
large  cities,  and  that  Antonelli  replied,  "Yes; 
God  be  praised  for  it!" 

Feb.  25. — The  elder  Herbert  *  has  painted  a 
fine  picture,  and  we  all  went  to  look  at  it  this 
afternoon,  as  it  will  be  packed  up  to-morrow 
for  the  Royal  Exhibition  at  London.  He  has 
chosen  for  his  subject  the  verse  of  a  Greek  poet, 
otherwise  unknown: 

*  The  elder  of  two  brothers,  sons  of  an  English  artist. 
23 


354  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

"  Unyoke  your  oxen,  you  fellow, 
And  take  the  coulter  out  of  your  plough; 
For  you  are  ploughing  amid  the  graves  of  men, 
And  the  dust  you  turn  up  is  the  dust  of  your  ancestors." 

Herbert  has  substituted  buffalos  for  oxen  as 
being  more  picturesque,  though  they  were  not 
imported  into  Italy  until  some  time  in  the  Mid 
dle  Ages.  It  is  generally  predicted  that  Herbert 
will  become  an  E.  A.  like  his  father;  but  the 
subject  is  even  more  to  his  credit  than  his  treat 
ment  of  it.  It  is  discussed  at  the  Lapre  whether 
this  verse  has  been  equalled  by  Tennyson  or 
Longfellow,  and  the  conclusion  was :  ' l  Not 
proven. ' ' 

March  1. — The  Longfellows  are  gone,  and 
Borne  is  filling  up  with  a  different  class  of  peo 
ple  who  have  come  here  to  witness  the  fatiguing 
spectacles  of  Easter.  One  look  at  Michael  An- 
gelo's  "Last  Judgment"  would  be  worth  the 
whole  of  it  to  me. 

P—  -  is  said  to  have  captured  his  young  lady, 
and  it  seems  probable,  for  I  see  very  little  of 
him  now.  He  disappears  after  breakfast, 
rushes  through  his  dinner,  and  returns  late  in 
the  evenings.  So  all  the  world  changes. 


CENTENNIAL   CONTRIBUTIONS 

THE   ALCOTT    CENTENNIAL 

Read  at  the  Second  Church,  Copley  Square,  Boston,  Wed 
nesday,  November  29,  1899 

A  HUNDRED  years  ago  A.  Bronson  Alcott  was 
born,  and  thirty-three  years  later  his  daughter 
Louisa  was  born,  happily  on  the  same  day  of 
the  year,  as  if  for  this  very  purpose, — that  you 
might  testify  your  appreciation  of  the  good 
work  they  did  in  this  world,  at  one  and  the  same 
moment.  It  was  a  fortunate  coincidence,  which 
we  like  to  think  of  to-day,  as  it  undoubtedly 
gave  pleasure  to  Bronson  Alcott  and  his  wife 
sixty-seven  years  ago. 

How  genuine  were  Mr.  Alcott  and  his  daugh 
ter,  Louisa!  "All  else,"  says  the  sage,  "is 
superficial  and  perishable,  save  love  and  truth 
only."  It  is  through  the  love  and  truth  that 
was  in  these  two  that  we  still  feel  their  influence 
as  if  they  were  living  to-day.  How  well  I  recol 
lect  Mr.  Alcott 's  first  visit  to  my  father's  house 
at  Medf ord,  when  I  was  a  boy !  I  had  the  same 
impression  of  him  then  that  the  consideration 
of  his  life  makes  on  me  now, — as  an  exceptional 
person,  but  one  greatly  to  be  trusted.  I  could 
see  that  he  was  a  man  who  wished  well  to  me, 

355 


356  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

and  to  all  mankind;  who  had  no  intention  of 
encroaching  on  my  rights  as  an  individual  in 
any  way  whatever ;  and  who,  furthermore,  had 
no  suspicion  of  me  as  a  person  alien  to  himself. 
The  criticism  made  of  him  by  my  young  brother 
held  good  of  him  then  and  always, — that  "he 
looked  like  one  of  Christ's  disciples."  His 
aspect  was  intelligently  mild  and  gentle,  un 
mixed  with  the  slightest  taint  of  worldly  self- 
interest. 

He  heard  that  Goethe  had  said,  "We  begin 
to  sin  as  soon  as  we  act;"  but  he  did  not  agree 
to  this,  and  was  determined  that  one  man  at 
least  should  live  in  this  world  without  sinning. 
He  carried  this  plan  out  so  consistently  that,  as 
he  once  confessed  to  me,  it  brought  him  to  the 
verge  of  starvation.  Then  he  realized  that  in 
order  to  play  our  part  in  the  general  order  of 
things, — in  order  to  obviate  the  perpetual  ten 
dency  in  human  affairs  to  chaos, — we  are  con 
tinually  obliged  to  compromise.  However,  to 
the  last  he  would  never  touch  animal  food. 
Others  might  murder  sheep  and  oxen,  but  he, 
Bronson  Alcott,  would  not  be  a  partaker  in  what 
he  considered  a  serious  transgression  of  moral 
law.  This  brought  him  into  antagonism  with 
the  current  of  modern  opinion,  which  considers 
man  the  natural  ruler  of  this  earth,  and  that  it 
is  both  his  right  and  his  duty  to  remodel  it 
according  to  his  ideas  of  usefulness  and  beauty. 


CENTENNIAL    CONTRIBUTIONS  357 

It  brought  him  into  a  life-long  conflict  with 
society,  but  how  gallantly,  how  amiably  he  car 
ried  this  on  you  all  know.  It  cannot  be  said 
that  he  was  defeated,  for  his  spirit  was  uncon 
querable.  His  purity  of  intention  always  re 
ceived  its  true  recognition ;  and  wherever  Bron- 
son  Alcott  went  he  collected  the  most  earnest, 
high-minded  people  about  him,  and  made  them 
more  earnest,  more  high-minded  by  his  conver 
sation. 

How  different  was  his  daughter,  Louisa, — the 
keen  observer  of  life  and  manners;  the  witty 
story-teller  with  the  pictorial  mind;  always 
sympathetic,  practical,  helpful — the  mainstay  of 
her  family,  a  pillar  of  support  to  her  friends ; 
forgetting  the  care  of  her  own  soul  in  her  inter 
est  for  the  general  welfare ;  heedless  of  her  own 
advantage,  and  thereby  obtaining  for  herself  as 
a  gift  from  heaven,  the  highest  of  all  advan 
tages,  and  the  greatest  of  all  rewards  I 

And  yet,  with  so  wide  a  difference  in  the  prac 
tical  application  of  their  lives,  the  well-spring 
of  Louisa's  thought  and  the  main-spring  of  her 
action  were  identical  with  those  of  her  father, 
and  may  be  considered  an  inheritance  from  him. 
For  the  well-spring  of  her  thought  was  truth, 
and  the  main-spring  of  her  action  was  love. 
There  can  be  no  fine  art,  no  great  art,  no  art 
which  is  of  service  to  mankind,  which  does  not 
originate  on  this  twofold  basis.  We  are  told 


358  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

that  when  she  was  a  young  girl,  on  a  voyage 
from  Philadelphia  to  Boston,  her  face  suddenly 
lighted  up  with  the  true  brightness  of  genius, 
as  she  said,  "I  love  everybody  in  this  whole 
world !"  If,  afterwards,  a  vein  of  satire  came 
to  be  mingled  with  this  genial  flow  of  human 
kindness,  it  was  not  Louisa's  fault. 

In  like  manner,  Bronson  Alcott  rested  his 
argument  for  immortality  on  the  ground  of  the 
family  affections.  ' '  Such  strong  ties, ' '  he  rea 
soned,  ' '  could  not  have  been  made  merely  to  be 
broken."  Let  us  share  his  faith,  and  believe 
that  they  have  not  been  broken. 


THE   EMERSON   CENTENNIAL 

EMERSON   AND   THE   GEEAT   POETS 
Bead  in  the  Town  Hall,  Concord,  Mass.,  July  23,  1903 

ON  his  first  visit  to  England,  Emerson  was  so 
continually  besieged  with  invitations  that,  as  he 
wrote  to  Carlyle,  answering  the  notes  he  re 
ceived  ' '  ate  up  his  day  like  a  cherry ; ' '  and  yet 
I  have  never  met  but  one  Englishman,  Dr.  John 
Tyndall,  the  chemist,  who  seemed  to  appreciate 
Emerson's  poetry,  and  few  others  who  might 
be  said  to  appreciate  the  man  himself.  Tyndall 
may  have  recognized  Emerson's  keen  insight 
for  the  poetry  of  science  in  such  verses  as : 

"  What  time  the  gods  kept  carnival ; 
Tricked  out  in  gem  and  flower; 
And  in  cramp  elf  and  saurian  form 
They  swathed  their  too  much  power." 

A  person  who  lacks  some  knowledge  of  geol 
ogy  would  not  be  likely  to  understand  this. 
Matthew  Arnold  and  Edwin  Arnold  had  no  very 
high  opinion  of  Emerson's  poetry;  and  even 
Carlyle,  who  was  Emerson's  best  friend  in 
Europe,  spoke  of  it  in  rather  a  disparaging 
manner.  The  "Mountain  and  the  Squirrel" 

359 


360  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

and  several  others  have  been  translated  into 
German,  but  not  those  which  we  here  consider 
the  best  of  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  William  H.  Furness 
considered  Emerson  "heaven-high  above  our 
other  poets ;"  C.  P.  Cranch  preferred  him  to 
Longfellow;  Dr.  F.  H.  Hedge  looked  upon  him 
as  the  first  poet  of  his  time ;  Rev.  Samuel  Long 
fellow  and  Rev.  Samuel  Johnson  held  a  very 
similar  opinion,  and  David  A.  Wasson  consid 
ered  Emerson 's  "Problem"  one  of  the  great 
poems  of  the  century. 

These  men  were  all  poets  themselves,  though 
they  did  not  make  a  profession  of  it,  and  in  that 
character  were  quite  equal  to  Matthew  Arnold, 
whose  lecture  on  Emerson  was  evidently  written 
under  unfavorable  influences.  They  were  men 
who  had  passed  through  similar  experiences  to 
those  which  developed  Emerson's  mind  and 
character,  and  could  therefore  comprehend  him 
better  than  others.  We  all  feel  that  Emerson's 
poetry  is  sometimes  too  abstruse,  especially  in 
his  earlier  verses,  and  that  its  meaning  is  often 
too  recondite  for  ready  apprehension ;  but  there 
are  passages  in  it  so  luminous  and  so  far-reach 
ing  in  their  application  that  only  the  supreme 
poets  of  all  time  have  equalled  them. 

Homer 's  strength  consists  in  his  pictorial  de 
scriptions,  but  also  sometimes  in  pithy  reflec 
tions  on  life  and  human  nature;  and  it  is  in 


THE    EMERSON    CENTENNIAL  361 

these  latter  that  Emerson  often  comes  close  to 
him.  Most  widely  known  of  Homer's  epigrams 
is  that  reply  of  Telemachus  to  Antiochus  in  the 
Odyssey,  which  Pope  has  rendered : 

"  True  hospitality  is  in  these  terms  expressed, 
Welcome  the  coming,  speed  the  parting  guest." 

To  which  the  following  couplet  from  ^Wood- 
notes  ' '  seems  almost  like  a  continuation : 

"  Go  where  he  will,  the  wise  man  is  at  home, 
His  hearth  the  earth, — his  hall  the  azure  dome ;" 

The  wise  man  carries  rest  and  contentment 
in  his  own  mental  life,  and  is  equally  himself  at 
the  Corona  d 'Italia  and  on  a  western  ranch; 
while  the  weakling  runs  back  to  earlier  associa 
tions  like  a  colt  to  its  stable.  But  Homer  is  also 
Emersonian  at  times.  What  could  be  more  so 
than  Achilles 's  memorable  saying,  which  is  re 
peated  by  Ulysses  in  the  Odyssey :  ' i  More  hate 
ful  to  me  than  the  gates  of  death  is  he  who 
thinks  one  thing  and  speaks  another;"  or  this 
exclamation  of  old  Laertes  in  the  last  book  of 
the  Odyssey:  "What  a  day  is  this  when  I  see 
my  son  and  grandson  contending  in  excellence ! ' ' 

It  seems  a  long  way  from  Dante  to  Emerson, 
and  yet  there  are  Dantean  passages  in  "Wood- 
notes"  and  "Voluntaries."  They  are  not  in 
Dante's  matchless  measure,  but  they  have  much 


362  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

of  his  grace,  and  more  of  his  inflexible  will. 
This  warning  against  mercenary  marriages 
might  be  compared  to  Dante's  answer  to  the 
embezzling  Pope  Nicholas  III.  in  Canto  XIX. 
of  the  Inferno : 

"  He  shall  be  happy  in  his  love, 
Like  to  like  shall  joyful  prove; 
He  shall  be  happy  whilst  he  woos, 
Muse-born,  a  daughter  of  the  Muse. 
But  if  with  gold  she  bind  her  hair, 
And  deck  her  breast  with  diamond, 
Take  off  thine  eyes,  thy  heart  forbear, 
Though  thou  lie  alone  on  the  ground. 
The  robe  of  silk  in  which  she  shines, 
It  was  woven  of  many  sins; 
And  the  shreds 
Which  she  sheds 
In  the  wearing  of  the  same, 
Shall  be  grief  on  grief, 
And  shame  on  shame." 

There  is  a  Spartan-like  severity  in  this,  but 
so  was  Dante  very  severe.  It  was  his  mission 
to  purify  the  moral  sense  of  his  countrymen  in 
an  age  when  the  Church  no  longer  encouraged 
virtue;  and  Emerson  no  less  vigorously  op 
posed  the  rank  materialism  of  America  in  a 
period  of  exceptional  prosperity. 

The  next  succeeding  lines  are  not  exactly 
Dantean,  but  they  are  among  Emerson's  finest, 
and  worthy  of  any  great  poet.  The  "Pine 
Tree"  says: 


THE    EMERSON    CENTENNIAL  363 

"  Heed  the  old  oracles, 
Ponder  my  spells; 
Song  wakes  in  my  pinnacles 
When  the  wind  swells. 
Soundeth  the  prophetic  wind, 
The  shadows  shake  on  the  rock  behind, 
And  the  countless  leaves  of  the  pine  are  strings 
Tuned  to  the  lay  the  wood-god  sings." 

Again  we  are  reminded  of  Dante  in  the  opening 
passages  of  " Voluntaries' ': 

"  Low  and  mournful  be  the  strain, 

Haughty  thought  be  far  from  me ; 
Where  a  captive  lies  in  pain 

Moaning  by  the  tropic  sea. 
Sole  estate  his  sire  bequeathed — 

Hapless  sire  to  hapless  son — 
Was  the  wailing  song  he  breathed, 

And  his  chain  when  life  was  done." 

It  is  still  more  difficult  to  compare  Emerson 
with  Shakespeare,  for  the  one  was  Puritan  with 
a  strong  classic  tendency,  and  the  other  anti- 
Puritan  with  a  strong  romantic  tendency;  but 
allowing  for  this  and  for  Shakespeare 's  univer 
sality,  it  may  be  affirmed  that  there  are  few 
passages  in  King  Henry  IV.  and  Henry  V. 
which  take  a  higher  rank  than  Emerson's  de 
scription  of  Cromwell: 

"  He  works,  plots,  fights  'mid  rude  affairs, 
With  squires,  knights,  kings  his  strength  compares; 


364  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

Till  late  he  learned  through  doubt  and  fear, 
Broad  England  harbored  not  his  peer: 
Unwilling  still  the  last  to  own, 
The  genius  on  his  cloudy  throne." 

Emerson  learned  a  large  proportion  of  his 
wisdom  from  Goethe,  as  he  frequently  con 
fessed,  but  where  in  Goethe's  poetry  will  you 
find  a  quatrain  of  more  penetrating  beauty  or 
wider  significance  than  this  from  "Wood- 
notes'7: 

"  Thou  canst  not  wave  thy  staff  in  air 

Nor  dip  thy  paddle  in  the  lake, 
But  it  carves  the  bow  of  beauty  there, 
•  And  ripples  in  rhyme  the  oar  forsake." 

Or  this  one  from  the  "Building  of  the 
House ' '  —  considered  metaphorically  as  the 
life  structure  of  man: 

"  She  lays  her  beams  in  music, 

In  music  every  one, 
To  the  cadence  of  the  whirling  world 
Which  dances  round  the  sun." 

There  is  a  flash  as  of  heaven's  own  lightning 
in  some  of  his  verses,  and  his  name  has  become 
a  spell  to  conjure  with. 


THE    HAWTHORNE    CENTENNIAL 

HAWTHOBNE   AS   AKT    CKITIC 

WHEN  the  " Marble  Faun"  was  first  pub 
lished  the  art  criticism  in  it,  especially  of  sculp 
tors  and  painters  who  were  then  living,  created 
a  deal  of  discussion,  which  has  been  revived 
again  by  the  recent  centennial  celebration. 
Hawthorne  himself  was  the  most  perfect  artist 
of  his  time  as  a  man  of  letters,  and  the  judg 
ment  of  such  a  person  ought  to  have  its  value, 
even  when  it  relates  to  subjects  which  are  be 
yond  the  customary  sphere  of  his  investiga 
tions,  and  for  which  he  has  not  made  a  serious 
preparation.  In  spite  of  the  adage, ' i  every  man 
to  his  own  trade,"  it  may  be  fairly  asserted  that 
much  of  Hawthorne's  art  criticism  takes  rank 
among  the  finest  that  has  been  written  in  any 
language.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  in 
stances,  as  might  be  expected,  in  which  he  has 
failed  to  hit  the  mark. 

These  latter  may  be  placed  in  two  classes: 
Firstly,  those  in  which  he  indicates  a  partial 
ity  for  personal  acquaintances;  and  secondly, 
those  in  which  he  has  followed  popular  opinion 
at  the  time,  or  the  opinion  of  others,  without 
sufficient  consideration. 

865 


366  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

American  society  in  Eome  is  always  split  up 
into  various  cliques, — which  is  not  surprising  in 
view  of  the  adventitious  manner  in  which  it 
comes  together  there, — and  in  Hawthorne's 
time  the  two  leading  parties  were  the  Story  and 
the  Crawford  factions.  The  latter  was  a  man 
of  true  genius,  and  not  only  the  best  of  Ameri 
can  sculptors,  but  perhaps  the  greatest  sculptor 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  His  statue  of  Bee 
thoven  is  in  the  grand  manner,  and  instinct  with 
harmony,  not  only  in  attitude  and  expression, 
but  even  to  the  arrangement  of  the  drapery. 
Crawford's  genius  was  only  too  well  appre 
ciated,  ajid  he  was  constantly  carrying  off  the 
prizes  of  his  art  from  all  competitors.  Conse 
quently  it  was  inevitable  that  other  sculptors 
should  be  jealous  of  him,  and  should  unite 
together  for  mutual  protection.  Story  was  a 
man  of  talent,  and  not  a  little  of  an  amateur, 
but  he  was  the  gentlemanly  entertainer  of  those 
Americans  who  came  to  the  city  with  good  let 
ters  of  introduction.  Hawthorne  evidently  fell 
into  Story's  hands.  He  speaks  slightingly  of 
Crawford,  and  praises  Story's  statue  of  Cleo 
patra  in  unqualified  terms ;  and  yet  there  seems 
to  have  been  an  undercurrent  of  suspicion  in 
his  mind,  for  he  says  more  than  once  in  the 
"Marble  Faun"  that  it  would  appear  to  be  a 
failing  with  sculptors  to  speak  unfavorably  of 
the  work  of  other  sculptors,  and  this,  of  course, 


THE    HAWTHORNE    CENTENNIAL          367 

refers  to  those  with  whom  he  was  acquainted, 
and  whom  he  sometimes  rated  above  their  value. 
Warrington  Wood,  the  best  English  sculptor 
of  thirty  years  ago,  praised  Story's  "Cleopa 
tra"  to  me,  and  I  believe  that  Crawford  also 
would  have  praised  it.  Neither  has  Hawthorne 
valued  its  expression  too  highly — the  expres 
sion  of  worldly  splendor  incarnated  in  a  beau 
tiful  woman  on  the  tragical  verge  of  an  abyss. 
If  she  only  were  beautiful!  Here  the  limita 
tions  of  the  statue  commence.  Hawthorne  says : 
"The  sculptor  had  not  shunned  to  give  the  full, 
Nubian  lips,  and  other  characteristics  of  the 
Egyptian  physiognomy. "  Here  he  follows  the 
sculptor  himself,  and  it  is  remarkable  that  a 
college  graduate  like  William  Story  should  have 
made  so  transparent  a  mistake.  Cleopatra  was 
not  an  Egyptian  at  all.  The  Ptolemies  were 
Greeks,  and  it  is  simply  impossible  to  believe 
that  they  would  have  allied  themselves  with  a 
subject  and  alien  race.  This  kind  of  small  ped 
antry  has  often  led  artists  astray,  and  was 
peculiarly  virulent  during  the  middle  of  the 
last  century.  The  whole  figure  of  Story's 
"Cleopatra"  suffers  from  it.  He  says  again: 
"She  was  draped  from  head  to  foot  in  a  cos 
tume  minutely  and  scrupulously  studied  from 
that  of  ancient  Egypt."  In  fact,  the  body  and 
limbs  of  the  statue  are  so  closely  shrouded  as  to 
deprive  the  work  of  that  sense  of  freedom  of 


368  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

action  and  royal  abandon  which  greets  us  in 
Shakespeare's  and  Plutarch's  li Cleopatra. " 
Story  might  have  taken  a  lesson  from  Titian's 
matchless  "Cleopatra"  in  the  Cassel  Gallery, 
or  from  Marc  Antonio's  small  woodcut  of 
Eaphael's  "Cleopatra." 

Hawthorne  was  an  idealist,  and  he  idealized 
the  materials  in  Story's  studio,  for  literary  pur 
poses,  just  as  Shakespeare  idealized  Henry  V., 
who  was  not  a  magnanimous  monarch  at  all, 
but  a  brutal,  narrow-minded  fighter.  The  dis 
course  on  art,  which  he  develops  in  this  manner, 
forms  one  of  the  most  valuable  chapters  in  the 
"Marble  Faun."  It  assists  us  in  reading  it  to 
remember  that  Story  was  not  the  model  for 
Hawthorne's  "Kenyon,"  but  a  very  different 
character.  The  passage  in  which  he  criticises 
the  methods  of  modern  sculptors  has  often  been 
quoted  in  later  writings  on  that  subject ;  and  I 
suppose  the  whole  brotherhood  of  artists  would 
rise  up  against  me  if  I  were  to  support  Haw 
thorne's  condemnation  of  nude  Venuses  and 
"the  guilty  glimpses  stolen  at  hired  models." 

They  are  not  necessarily  guilty  glimpses.  To 
an  experienced  artist  the  customary  study  from 
a  naked  figure,  male  or  female,  is  little  more 
than  what  a  low-necked  dress  would  be  to  others. 
Yet  the  instinct  of  the  age  shrinks  from  this 
exposure.  We  can  make  pretty  good  Venuses, 
but  we  cannot  look  at  them  through  the  same 


THE    HAWTHORNE    CENTENNIAL          369 

mental  and  moral  atmosphere  as  the  cotempo- 
raries  of  Scopas,  or  even  with  the  same  eyes 
that  Michael  Angelo  did.  We  feel  the  difference 
between  a  modern  Venus  and  an  ancient  one. 
There  is  a  statue  in  the  Vatican  of  a  Eoman 
emperor,  of  which  every  one  says  that  it  ought 
to  wear  clothes ;  and  the  reason  is  because  the 
face  has  such  a  modern  look.  A  raving  Bac 
chante  may  be  a  good  acquisition  to  an  art 
museum,  but  it  is  out  of  place  in  a  public  library. 
A  female  statue  requires  more  or  less  drapery 
to  set  off  the  outlines  of  the  figure  and  to  give 
it  dignity.  We  feel  this  even  in  the  finest  Greek 
work — like  the  Venus  of  Cnidos. 

In  this  matter  Hawthorne  certainly  exposes 
his  Puritanic  education,  and  he  also  places  too 
high  a  value  on  the  carving  of  buttonholes  and 
shoestrings  by  Italian  workmen.  Such  things 
are  the  fag-ends  of  statuary. 

His  judgment,  however,  is  clear  and  con 
vincing  in  regard  to  the  tinted  Eves  and 
Venuses  of  Gibson.  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  ancient  practice  in  this  respect,  Gibson's 
experiment  proved  a  failure.  Nobody  likes 
those  statues ;  and  no  other  sculptor  has  since 
followed  Gibson's  example. 

Hawthorne  overestimates  the  Apollo  Belvi- 
dere,  as  all  the  world  did  at  that  time ;  but  his 
single  remark  concerning  Canova  is  full  of  sig 
nificance:  "In  these  precincts  which  Canova 's 

24 


370  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

genius  was  not  quite  of  a  character  to  render 
sacred,  though  it  certainly  made  them  interest 
ing,  "  etc. 

He  goes  to  the  statue  gallery  in  the  Vatican 
and  returns  with  a  feeling  of  dissatisfaction, 
and  justly  so,  for  the  vast  majority  of  statues 
there  are  merely  copies,  and  many  of  them  very 
bad  copies.  He  recognizes  the  Laocoon  for 
what  it  really  is,  the  abstract  type  of  a  Greek 
tragedy.  He  notices  what  has  since  been 
proved  by  severe  archaeological  study,  that  most 
of  the  possible  types  and  attitudes  of  marble 
statues  had  been  exhausted  by  the  Greeks  long 
before  the  Christian  era.  Miss  Hosmer's  Ze- 
nobia  was  originally  a  Ceres,  and  even  Craw 
ford's  Orpheus  strongly  resembles  a  figure  in 
the  Niobe  group  at  Florence. 

But  Hawthorne's  description  of  the  Faun  of 
Praxiteles  stands  by  itself.  As  a  penetrative 
analysis  of  a  great  sculptor's  motive  it  is  un 
equalled  by  any  modern  writer  on  art,  and  this 
is  set  forth  with  a  grace  and  delicacy  worthy  of 
Praxiteles  himself.  The  only  criticism  which 
one  feels  inclined  to  make  of  it  is  that  it  too 
Hawthornish,  too  modern  and  elaborate;  but 
is  not  this  equally  true  of  all  modern  criticism? 
We  cannot  return  to  the  simplicity  of  the 
Greeks  any  more  than  we  can  to  their  customs. 
If  Hawthorne  would  seem  to  discover  too  much 
in  this  statue,  which  is  really  a  poor  Eoman 


THE    HAWTHORNE    CENTENNIAL          371 

copy,  he  has  himself  given  us  an  answer  to  this 
objection.  In  Volume  II.,  Chapter  XII.,  he 
says :  ' '  Let  the  canvas  glow  as  it  may,  you  must 
look  with  the  eye  of  faith,  or  its  highest  excel 
lence  escapes  you.  There  is  always  the  neces 
sity  of  helping  out  the  painter 's  art  with  your 
own  resources  of  sensibility  and  imagination. " 
His  cursory  remarks  on  Raphael  are  not  less 
pertinent  and  penetrating.  Of  technicalities  he 
knew  little,  but  no  one,  perhaps,  has  sounded 
such  depths  of  that  clairvoyant  master 's  nature, 
and  so  brought  to  light  the  very  soul  of  him. 

The  "Marble  Faun"  may  not  be  the  most 
perfect  of  Hawthorne's  works,  but  it  is  much 
the  greatest, — an  epic  romance,  which  can  only 
be  compared  with  Goethe's  "  Wilhelm  Meister." 

HAWTHORNE   AND    HAMLET. 

A  Reply  to  Professor  Bliss  Perry. 

To  compare  a  person  in  real  life  with  a  char 
acter  in  fiction  is  not  uncommon,  but  it  is  more 
conducive  to  solidity  of  judgment  to  compare 
the  living  with  the  living,  and  the  imaginary 
with  the  imaginary.  The  chief  difficulty,  how 
ever,  in  Hamlet's  case,  is  that  he  only  appears 
before  us  as  a  person  acting  in  an  abnormal 
mental  condition.  The  mysterious  death  of  his 
father,  the  suspicion  of  his  mother's  complicity 
in  crime,  which  takes  the  form  of  an  apparition 


372  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

from  beyond  the  grave,  is  too  much  of  a  strain 
for  his  tender  and  impressible  nature.  His 
mental  condition  has  become  well  known  to  phy 
sicians  as  cerebral  hyper&mia,  and  all  his 
strange  speeches  and  eccentric  actions  are  to 
be  traced  to  this  source ;  and  it  is  for  this  rea 
son  that  the  dispute  has  arisen  as  to  whether 
Hamlet  was  not  partially  insane.  If  the  strain 
continued  long  enough  he  would  no  doubt  have 
become  insane. 

As  well  as  we  can  penetrate  through  this  ad 
ventitious  nimbus,  we  discover  Hamlet  to  be  a 
person  of  generous,  princely  nature,  high- 
minded  and  chivalrous.  He  is  cordial  to  every 
one,  but  always  succeeds  in  asserting  the  supe 
riority  of  his  position,  even  in  his  conversation 
with  Horatio.  If  he  is  mentally  sensitive  he 
shows  no  indication  of  it.  He  never  appears  shy 
or  reserved,  but  on  the  contrary,  confident  and 
even  bold.  This  may  be  owing  to  the  mental 
excitement  under  which  he  labors ;  but  the  best 
critics  from  Goethe  down  have  accredited  him 
with  a  lack  of  resolution;  and  it  is  this  which 
produces  the  catastrophe  of  the  play.  He  must 
have  realized,  as  we  all  do,  that  after  the  scene 
of  the  players  in  which  he  "catches  the  con 
science  of  a  king, ? '  his  life  was  in  great  danger. 
He  should  either  have  organized  a  conspiracy 
at  once,  or  fled  to  the  court  of  Fortinbras ;  but 
he  allows  events  to  take  their  course,  and  is  con- 


THE    HAWTHORNE    CENTENNIAL          373 

trolled  by  them  instead  of  shaping  his  own  des 
tiny.  Instead  of  planning  and  acting  he  philoso 
phizes. 

Of  Hawthorne,  on  the  contrary,  we  know 
nothing  except  as  a  person  in  a  perfectly  normal 
condition.  His  wife  once  said  that  she  had 
rarely  known  him  to  be  indignant,  and  never  to 
lose  his  temper.  He  was  the  most  sensitive  of 
men,  but  he  also  possesed  an  indomitable  will. 
It  was  only  his  terrible  determination  that  could 
make  his  life  a  success.  Emerson,  who  had  little 
sympathy  with  him  otherwise,  always  admired 
the  perfect  equipoise  of  his  nature.  A  man 
could  not  be  more  thoroughly  himself ;  but,  such 
a  reticent,  unsociable  character  as  Hawthorne 
could  never  be  used  as  the  main-spring  of  a 
drama,  for  he  would  continually  impede  the 
progress  of  the  plot.  A  dramatic  character 
needs  to  be  a  talkative  person;  one  that  either 
acts  out  his  internal  life,  or  indirectly  exposes 
it.  Hawthorne's  best  friends  do  not  appear  to 
have  known  what  his  real  opinions  were.  This 
perpetual  reserve,  this  unwillingness  to  assimi 
late  himself  to  others,  may  have  been  necessary 
for  the  perfection  of  his  art. 

The  greater  a  writer  or  an  artist,  the  more 
unique  he  is, — the  more  sharply  defined  from  all 
other  members  of  his  class.  Hawthorne  cer 
tainly  did  not  resemble  Scott,  Dickens,  or 
Thackeray,  either  in  his  life  or  his  work.  He 


374  CAMBRIDGE    SKETCHES 

was  perhaps  more  like  Auerbach  than  any  other 
writer  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  still  more 
like  Goldsmith.  The  ' '  Vicar  of  Wakefield  '  '  and 
the  " House  of  the  Seven  Gables"  are  the  two 
perfect  romances  in  the  English  tongue;  and 
the  "Deserted  Village,"  though  written  in 
poetry,  has  very  much  the  quality  of  Haw 
thorne's  shorter  sketches.  "And  tales  much 
older  than  the  ale  went  round"  is  closely  akin 
to  Hawthorne's  humor ;  yet  there  was  little  out 
ward  similarity  between  them,  for  Goldsmith 
was  often  gay  and  sometimes  frivolous;  and 
although  Hawthorne  never  published  a  line  of 
poetry  he  was  the  more  poetic  of  the  two,  as 
Goldsmith  was  the  more  dramatic.  He  also  re 
sembled  Goldsmith  in  his  small  financial  diffi 
culties. 

In  his  persistent  reserve,  in  the  seriousness 
of  his  delineation,  and  in  his  indifference  to  the 
opinions  of  others,  Hawthorne  reminds  us  some 
what  of  Michael  Angelo ;  but  he  is  one  of  the 
most  unique  figures  among  the  world's  geniuses. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


27JanoOC/?J 

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l3Dec'8tOT    n 

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•  DtC  1  5  1961 

RECEIVED 

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JUQAN  BERX. 

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MAR  10  1982    8 

LD  21A-50m-4,'59 
(A1724slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

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